Difference between revisions of "User:Ctaketa"
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==My Social Media & Online Identity== | ==My Social Media & Online Identity== | ||
| + | While I accumulated a moderate amount of data (both past & present, true & false, and complete & incomplete) on myself, I must note my surprise regarding the vast quantity of information found on separate individuals. With a unique last name such as “Taketa”, I assumed that data would be fairly specialized towards myself. However, I believe the combination of my common first name and unique last name led to such great search results. | ||
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| + | As Google breaks down a search query, phrases are broken down to individual words, and words are assessed for potential interpretation of spelling mistakes (CITATION). So, as I search “Caroline Taketa”, Google instantaneously assesses the possibility that “Caroline” was actually intended to be similar words such as “Carolyn” or “Carol”. Additionally, “Taketa” was assessed as “Takata”, “Takeda”, “Takoua”, and “Take” (among several other variations). Through the combination of a common first name with an uncommon last name left room for hundreds of thousands of possible variations of my search query, and thus, hundreds of thousands of search results on data that had nothing to do with me. | ||
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| + | Due to this nature, I believe this is a possible reason for the variety of information that can be found when searching “Caroline Taketa” both on Google, DuckDuckGo, InstantCheckmate, and other search engines and data broker services. And while significant information can be gathered on me–such as my home phone number, address, social media profiles, some relatives, etc.–there is also a significant amount of misinformation that is associated with such searches. Most commonly, these services listed relatives of mine that I am not at all related to as well as search results on individuals that have similar names to mine, but are not me. | ||
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====Past Usage==== | ====Past Usage==== | ||
| + | My relationship with social media began as a preteen when I first realized that lying about your birthday provided easy access around the age requirement of many social media platforms. I dove directly into Facebook, quickly following with my creation of profiles on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Obsessed with creating a ‘perfect’ social media profile, I filled up each platform with a combination of hobbies, likes, and interests that hardly represented any truth of my actual identity. My 12- to 13-year-old self prioritized a list of “Favorites” composed of things I believed (at the time) I should like, rather than things I actually did like. | ||
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| + | But I mustn’t completely discredit my young self. The more “factual” information provided on me did speak to many aspects of who I was when I originally created these accounts. These platforms listed data on my past athletic history as well as my past educational and philanthropic endeavors. However, outside these two areas, the data on my accounts shows a consistent pattern of being inaccurate. While I believe part of this is due to my own fault of listing hobbies, interests, and other activities that I really had no interest in when first filling out my profiles, I believe that part of the misinformation was gathered from the social media site's prediction of my identity. | ||
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====Present Usage==== | ====Present Usage==== | ||
====The Disconnect==== | ====The Disconnect==== | ||
| + | My unplugging of social media stemmed from an internal psychological spiral. As I formulated a ‘perfect’ identity on social media, I lost touch with who I was in the physical world. If I could attribute my feeling to words, it would mirror those of philosopher Luciano Floridi: “The increasing re-ontologization of artefacts and of whole (social) environments suggests that soon it will be difficult to understand what life was like in predigital times and, in the near future, the very distinction between online and offline will become blurred and then disappear.” (CITATION) Written in The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (2010), Floridi was unaware of just how quickly this divide would disappear. | ||
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| + | Not even a decade after beginning social media, I left it. The temporary relief of escaping the struggles of a physical world turned into a chronic anxiety of my identity in the digital one. An image of myself was being painted not only online, but in the minds of every individual my profile encountered. As social media created it’s depiction of my identity, it was erasing anything and everything I knew, or thought I knew, about who I was. Feeling confused and alone, I knew that in order to find myself, I must first be present in the physical world rather than the digital one. I could no longer worry about the image social media was painting of me and begin painting my own image of myself. | ||
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==Conclusion== | ==Conclusion== | ||
Revision as of 12:49, 19 February 2021
Contents
Search Process
My Social Media & Online Identity
While I accumulated a moderate amount of data (both past & present, true & false, and complete & incomplete) on myself, I must note my surprise regarding the vast quantity of information found on separate individuals. With a unique last name such as “Taketa”, I assumed that data would be fairly specialized towards myself. However, I believe the combination of my common first name and unique last name led to such great search results.
As Google breaks down a search query, phrases are broken down to individual words, and words are assessed for potential interpretation of spelling mistakes (CITATION). So, as I search “Caroline Taketa”, Google instantaneously assesses the possibility that “Caroline” was actually intended to be similar words such as “Carolyn” or “Carol”. Additionally, “Taketa” was assessed as “Takata”, “Takeda”, “Takoua”, and “Take” (among several other variations). Through the combination of a common first name with an uncommon last name left room for hundreds of thousands of possible variations of my search query, and thus, hundreds of thousands of search results on data that had nothing to do with me.
Due to this nature, I believe this is a possible reason for the variety of information that can be found when searching “Caroline Taketa” both on Google, DuckDuckGo, InstantCheckmate, and other search engines and data broker services. And while significant information can be gathered on me–such as my home phone number, address, social media profiles, some relatives, etc.–there is also a significant amount of misinformation that is associated with such searches. Most commonly, these services listed relatives of mine that I am not at all related to as well as search results on individuals that have similar names to mine, but are not me.
Past Usage
My relationship with social media began as a preteen when I first realized that lying about your birthday provided easy access around the age requirement of many social media platforms. I dove directly into Facebook, quickly following with my creation of profiles on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Obsessed with creating a ‘perfect’ social media profile, I filled up each platform with a combination of hobbies, likes, and interests that hardly represented any truth of my actual identity. My 12- to 13-year-old self prioritized a list of “Favorites” composed of things I believed (at the time) I should like, rather than things I actually did like.
But I mustn’t completely discredit my young self. The more “factual” information provided on me did speak to many aspects of who I was when I originally created these accounts. These platforms listed data on my past athletic history as well as my past educational and philanthropic endeavors. However, outside these two areas, the data on my accounts shows a consistent pattern of being inaccurate. While I believe part of this is due to my own fault of listing hobbies, interests, and other activities that I really had no interest in when first filling out my profiles, I believe that part of the misinformation was gathered from the social media site's prediction of my identity.
Present Usage
The Disconnect
My unplugging of social media stemmed from an internal psychological spiral. As I formulated a ‘perfect’ identity on social media, I lost touch with who I was in the physical world. If I could attribute my feeling to words, it would mirror those of philosopher Luciano Floridi: “The increasing re-ontologization of artefacts and of whole (social) environments suggests that soon it will be difficult to understand what life was like in predigital times and, in the near future, the very distinction between online and offline will become blurred and then disappear.” (CITATION) Written in The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (2010), Floridi was unaware of just how quickly this divide would disappear.
Not even a decade after beginning social media, I left it. The temporary relief of escaping the struggles of a physical world turned into a chronic anxiety of my identity in the digital one. An image of myself was being painted not only online, but in the minds of every individual my profile encountered. As social media created it’s depiction of my identity, it was erasing anything and everything I knew, or thought I knew, about who I was. Feeling confused and alone, I knew that in order to find myself, I must first be present in the physical world rather than the digital one. I could no longer worry about the image social media was painting of me and begin painting my own image of myself.
