For the Cybersleuthing/cyber creeping assignment, Olivia Gordon and I chose to be partners. We are complete strangers and have just met through Zoom in a breakout room. I reached out to Olivia and asked to be partners based on our mutual love of orange cats. I am going to do some investigating through a variety of social media platforms and see what kind of information I can find out about Olivia and will document it as I find it on this blog post.
First, I checked Facebook. I searched Olivia Gordon and she popped up as my first choice of Olivia Gordon’s. We have 4 mutual friends, which I am curious about how she knows those specific people. Here is the information I found out about Olivia from Facebook:
-Her full name (first, middle, last)
-Her birthday
-Her gender
-Her workplace
-Where she went to high school
-The town she is from
-What she studied in university (secondary education)
-Her interest in plants and gardening
-Has an orange cat named Reba
-Her love for sports and coaching
-Has an interest in nature
-Looks like an amazing baker
-Has a partner
After looking through Olivia’s Facebook, I searched her on Instagram. However, I was disappointed to find that her Instagram is private. In her Instagram bio, she includes information such as:
-Attending the University of Regina
-She has a link to a makeup and lashes Instagram page in which Olivia owns. Her makeup/lash studio is located in Canora, Saskatchewan. She includes the rainbow emoji and words safe space indicating she supports the 2SLGBTQ community.
-Olivia also has a link to an Instagram paged called Craftedbyog in which Olivia created as well. By looking at the pictures posted on this page, I found out that Olivia puts designs and words on cups, pillows, clothes, mugs, plates, key chains, etc.
I then looked through Olivia’s Twitter, which I do follow her because of our EDTC 300 class. On Olivia’s Twitter, I found out a bit more about her educational philosophies and values including:
-Will be completing her internship in the fall
-Has been diagnosed with anxiety
-Inclusivity and equity in education
-Likes Dr. Jodi Carrington– educational psychologist
Based on the information I gathered about Olivia, I think she seems like a pretty cool person! Her and I have some similar interests such as inclusive education, cats (orange cats in particular) and baking. All the information I found about Olivia was positive and portrayed a positive digital identity!
As part of this blog post, I chose to watch the Ted Talk by Monica Lewinsky. Truthfully before watching this Ted Talk, I heard Monica’s name in music and known her as the women who had a relationship with Bill Clinton while he was married to his wife. After watching this Ted Talk, I know see Monica as a human being who admittedly made mistakes (like we all do) and has a digital identity that does not match her identity as a human being. The thousands of social media posts that were created based on the case of Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton were created without consent and only caused Monica and Bill pain and humiliation. Unfortunately, Monica does not have control of the content that is posted about her. This is just ONE example of millions of people affected by cyberbullying and digital identities being ruined by one choice. I think that Monica is doing the right thing by speaking out about her experiences, being honest, and trying to teach people through her past experiences. I give her a lot of credit for doing this because she is changing her digital identity to be a positive one!
After reading the article about having multiple online identities titled Having multiple online identities is more normal than you think by N. Lee, I realized this is a possibility in today’s digital age, however, social media is so interconnected that it is becoming more difficult to have multiple identities on social media platforms. Monica Lewinsky is a prime example of having multiple identities in the digital world; one identity being her life as a 22 year old making life-impacting choices and the other identity being a woman who is sharing her experiences and building a positive sense of self as well as a positive digital identity. This article had me thinking of what our professor Dr.Katia Hildebrandt said. This is not her exact words but she said something similar to “if you do not want your grandma to see the post, do not post it anywhere on social media or the internet”. This is so true and everyone should go by this idea. In the article, the writer mentions that she has an Instagram profile for her friends and it is public. She also has a Facebook account but that is meant to keep in touch with family and friends. She uses Twitter for sharing random thoughts and political views. I understand the point and why this person wants to have these separate identities on social media. However, that is not the reality for today’s digital world. For example, it took me about 15 minutes to cybersleuth Olivia through a variety of social media platforms and I was able to create a digital identity of Olivia. That same action could be done on anyone with social media and the information can be complied to create digital identities of anyone….good or bad.