Talk:Zach Kendall

Hiya,

I'll start off by saying I think you've done a really good job illustrating that you're the type of person who likes to have complete control over what they do and do not share with the entire online world. You make several mentions of your efforts to keep personal information to yourself, despite all of Facebook's attempts to do otherwise. In addition, you make it clear that you're not all that involved with Facebook, choosing to use only features that are minimally revealing and keeping most of what constitutes "you" to yourself. However, you make mention of the fact that there are features you used in the past that you no longer keep up with, such as "liking" many different kinds of pages, or joining lots of different groups. I have to wonder why you've kept away from using those features more now than you have in the past, whether you felt it was something internal or if external forces convinced you to stay away.

In general, I felt you did well illustrating your online identity, especially with how much reasoning you put into how you've customized your identity. One thing I feel you may lack, though, is relating your online identity back to your real-world self. Does your Facebook reflect how much (or how little) you share outwardly with others? Do you treat it solely as something "you have to have because everyone else does", or do you genuinely feel like your presence on Facebook allows you to express additional qualities about yourself? I don't think you have any problem being genuine with us as readers about what you've chosen to portray about yourself, but what I'd want to know is 'why?'. I think you'll have a great piece if you can explain some of your feelings that went into the decisions you made about what information on Facebook stays personal, and what is public. You touch on it briefly by saying you think it's creepy to have people look at your old photos, but are there any other reasons you've not used other Facebook features? Why you've stopped using chat? Once you lay out how your real life identity influences your virtual identity, I think you'll have given us a very good insight into who you are online, and why you choose to be that way.

As far as writing goes, you have good voice and a very true style. I like the forcefulness behind some of your comments, and appreciate that it feels blunt to read your writing because it gets your point across very succinctly. That's not to say all of it is blunt, there are many flowing sentences as well, but you put a very nice emphasis on hitting hard and fast. There are a few instances you may want to consider phrasing some lines differently, mostly because you'd used the same 2-3 word phrase recently and the repetition can make it sound a bit funny. But, on a whole, you have a good writing style for explaining "how things are," and I enjoyed reading what you had to say.

Good work!

Michael Ives

Dear Zach,

I enjoyed your story. It went into great detail on how you transferred from one social network to another.

Positives: You were very detailed in how your identity online is something you feel you need to protect, and how you go about doing so. You also did a great job describing the kind of content that is on you facebook. I like how even though you limit your identity, you still took time to connect how your avatar is connected to the real you. You picture choice was good to as well as the placement of them.

Suggestions: I would have like to heard more about how this painted picture that you give to the public may help disembody you from your true identity and how facebook is apart of that a little more.

Overall great job.

-Sterling C. Sherman