Digital Tattoo

 My Digital Tattoo...the Long and Short of it.

My digiral Tattoo was nothing short of shocking.  I started with the obvious first search to start this jounrey-Google.  I used my first and last name in quotes, as instructed.  I was shocked to see that my name had 1,370 results! I never thought I was THAT important! 


What Google Knows...

Google showed results from Facebook, Linkdin, Twitter and Pinterst. There were a variety of posts-from all of these social media sites-even though I have not touched my Linkdin account for several years.  As I started my search, it reminded me of my digital map assignment from week 3. I had no idea then what an impact my digital presence had on my life-and I had no idea what my digital tattoo would resemble either. 




 A picture worth a thousand words...

What struck me most was the images that came up under this search.  I was taken aback to see a photo of my favorite Aunt-my Aunt Sissy. She died in 2016-and it was a devastating loss.  I wrote on her virtual obituary page.  I haven't thought about her in a while-and it brought back fond memories. There were pictures I expected to see-like my Facebook and Twitter profile pictures-but then things I didn't expect to see-like a still of a YouTube Video that I have on my private teaching site...and I wondered how it got there? There were pictures of GoFundMe pages that I have donated too and Facebook pictures that I have commented on. I would love to know the algorithm that produces and chooses some of these photos! 

Aunt Sissy-Dignity Memorial

PeekYou



Who me?



via GIPHY

I was also intrigued by the results and images that were NOT me. I had no idea my name was so popular!  I am NOT the Diving athlete from Michigan, nor am I the healthcare worker from Columbia South Carolina.  I am not the woman in Sales from West Michigan or the Peer Specialist from Louise Kentucky.  

Who else?

For my next search, I used my user name from Twitter-MrsD0523.  This search lead to more of my personal social media posts.  I had not even recalled that I posted reviews on TripAdvisor-one from a not-so-great hotel stay in Florida in 2013 and a glowing review for the Fenelon Place Elevator Company in Dubuque Iowa-apparently we had a great time! 

What else? 

I learned a lot about what's out there in the ether about me.  I learned from Illinois Teacher Salaries that in 2018 I made more than 28% of the employees in my district-at the base salary level. I learned that people could find out where I live-and where I lived up to thirty years ago! There were five phone numbers listed for me (although not the current one) and one of them was the bag phone I carried in 1997!  There were email addresses, associated names (although two were misspelled), and possible relatives-including the person who stole my husbands social security number in 2002! I am linked to my sisters, parents, in-laws, my daughter...and my spouse. There were also seven unknown "possible family members" when I checked TruPeopleSearch.  I was even associated with my sister's in-laws, although how the Internet made that connection-I'll never know! 

Truthfinder yielded a TON of inforamtion on me-and even eluded to the fact that someone owes me $84,210! Although I found that many of the sites I searched-were only pay to know sites-including Classmates, PeopleFinders and InstantCheckmate. 


Just goes to show...

This assignment was an eye-opener as to how easy it is to find information on me-whether it is true or not. I think about what Nicole said in the ScreenCastify presentation-What does your digital tattoo say about you?  Does it have any impact at all?  I think a digital tattoo does say something about you-and I think it depends on who is looking as to what they think-or how they interpret what they see.  It is all in the eye of the beholder.  






Comments

  1. Ms. Feltman in 4thOctober 17, 2020 at 12:22 PM

    Alyson, I really enjoyed your post! I love that you were reminded of fond memories of your aunt. It really is crazy the kind of information you can find! AND $84,000 WOW! TREAT YOURSELF!!! Luckily you did this assignment and did some digging!! Who'd have thought your trip advisor posts would be revealed too! I didn't find any of those things for myself, but I constantly use different account names so had a much more challenging time finding that information!

    ReplyDelete
  2. NMZumpanoOctober 17, 2020 at 5:50 PM

    It is pretty fascinating to see, isn't it? The more we know the better we can make sure we not only safeguard our identities but we begin to control the message that is put out there about us.

    ReplyDelete
  3. July MirandaOctober 18, 2020 at 11:25 AM

    Alyson its crazy how many people share the same name and last names all over the world. I myself also thought a nama like July was too unique and discovered that there are thousands with both my name and last name. I can't believe that you were linked with the person who stole your husband's identity! You mentioned that you don't know how your association with your sister's inlaws occured, I also wondered the same thing. It's crazy to think how even we try to keep things private like phone numbers and addresses they are all just a click away.

    ReplyDelete
  4. DeannaOctober 18, 2020 at 5:40 PM

    Hi Alyson!

    I agree that it is crazy to see how many people share the same name. My last name was "made up" by my great-grandfather when he came to America from Italy, so I thought there was going to be very few people with my last name. What I did find was so many people had the same last name I do, which is really cool! It is crazy what is online!

    ReplyDelete

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