My "Selves"

On page 117, Pariser discusses the differences between the aspirational and current selves. Pariser then moves on to discuss the nature of different selves as compared to Zuckerburg's view (ascribed in part by Pariser) of people having one self. Prepare to stare into space a bit: go blank. In your teaching and professional work, how many selves do you have? Which ones are represented online, how much information do they share, and which ones are the most "mined" for data?
When your students or colleagues or future employers search for you, which self do the see or find? Can you have any control over that?
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I have always known, in a way, that I have multiple "selves" so to speak. I remember in high school specifically I would be a slightly different person at school than I was at home in that I said words at school I wouldn't say in front of my parents and I definitely wasn't quite as outgoing and enthusiastic at home as I was at school. At home I was more quiet and though I spent a lot of time with my parents, I was often in my own bubble on the computer or playing games or making something. A similarity though that was true in both "selves" was a genuine love for life and a friendliness toward everyone. 


Looking at my self today, I still see several versions of my self. I have a work self, a class self, an in a classroom self (which varies a bit with grade levels), a with my boyfriend self, a with my friends self, a with my parents self, a with my sister self, a with my brother Daniel self, a with my brother Don self, and several other "with different family member" selves that are all pretty similar.

In the Filter Bubble, Eli Pariser writes about Mark Zuckerburg's stance on "selves". He basically says that there is no longer a such thing as having "selves". We now have only one self and it is the self we are on Facebook. I must say I agree with this to an extent, but I know it is not entirely true. The self I have displayed on Facebook is one which pertains to the selves I portray in every circumstance. The difference lies in the things I don't post on Facebook but sometimes say or do outside of Facebook. For example, I never curse on Facebook posts and if one of my friends curse on my page I delete it. When I post pictures on Facebook they are viewable only by my friends (Just like real life!) and they are appropriate for viewing by any of my friends which does include my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins and even mentor teachers and my boss at work. I feel comfortable having all of these people as friends on Facebook because that self is my filtered "online self". To be honest, my other "selves" don't differ much from that of the one on Facebook. The only differences might include the occasional alcoholic beverages with friends, the tone of my voice depending on who I'm talking to, and the rare upset self curse word that only shows up around the boyfriend and certain friends. I know that when I'm with my brother Daniel I'm a lot more open and relaxed where as with my brother Don I'm more reserved because of a religion factor. The way we act around others is mostly due to our fear that they may get an undesirable impression of us.

Another set of selves I found interesting from Pariser's book was his example of the difference between our Google self and our Facebook self. It is true that I sometime research things that I would never dream of mentioning on a Facebook post because they are personal, yet the information we give through our Google searches is collected into databases just like the information we give through Facebook. This information being collected creates a self we have little to no control over, especially for those that don't even know it is happening. 

This idea parallels with Pariser's points about future and present selves and how they differ in the moment. Although you may want to come across to the world as an intelligent, modest individual to future employers and colleagues, you may currently want to share the pictures you took with your friends at the beach this week on Facebook. Many people do not realize just how much the selves they portray on Facebook can affect them in the future and thus post things that their future selves may regret.

I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did- Interesting and Disturbing

I have noticed over the past few years that ads I see on different websites always pertain to me. I always thought it was interesting that they were able to pull this information from me to suit my interests but I never dreamed just how extreme this industry really was.

I remember the first time I noticed this ad placement was an assortment of ads for "Mormon Underwear". I belong to the LDS church and may have looked up something concerning the church recently, but I had found it interesting that those were the ads that kept coming up considering those garments are actually pretty personal and sacred items to the church. I had also never purchased any of these garments before. These ads popped up every time I logged into Facebook and came up on several other websites for several weeks and I became rather annoying. I could definitely see these ads to be offensive to stronger members of the LDS Church simply because those items shouldn't be advertised like that. Since that time my advertisements have changed and most recently I have been getting a lot of ads for new moms and baby products even though I'm not having a child any time soon. My guess is I probably "liked" so baby group on Facebook or something.


As I read this weeks assigned chapters from I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did, I was shocked, intrigued and definitely disturbed. I was one of the many who thought that fixing my privacy settings on Facebook would prevent people who weren't my friends from seeing it. I was glad to see that it saved me from a little turmoil, but not enough to truly feel comfortable with the happenings of Facebook. I had no idea that Facebook made so much money each year, and I never would have believed that the majority of it comes from sod information. Personal information from each and every user of Facebook and several other web-based companies is sold to companies constantly in order to place appropriate product ads on our web-browsers and also to have in information data-bases all over the internet.

Spokeo (first mentioned on pg 9), is a website I had never even heard of before, yet when I went to the website and typed in my name, sure as day it had my name, address, phone number, and plenty of other information which I would have to pay for to see. The site even had a Google map showing my parent's house. The fee for the site to see all this information was rather cheap too. I couldn't believe that all that information about me was right there for the world to see. It made me wonder what other information about me is out there.


As I read further, my anxiety over this new-found information was worsened as I read about websites like Axciom (First found on pg 19). These websites have information as detailed and personal as your social security number yet they also are known to hold inaccurate information about individuals which can lead to inaccurate credit ratings and can cause a business not to hire you even though you have no control over the information or its accuracy.


To worsen this pandemonium even more, similar, smaller companies like ChoicePoint have been know to make mistakes in who they allow access to this information and have been the cause of mass identity thefts. (pg 20)


These things along with information about how credit companies use your search history as means of deciding how much and what kind of credit to grant you were among the most interesting and disturbing things I've found thus far in the readings. As I read, I am very upset by the stakes businesses have taken to get ahead in the world. Jeopardizing the security of individuals all over the world is beyond inappropriate. I am all for creating laws against these piracies of privacy, not only to protect our personal information but to protect our livelihood. No one should have the right to hold someone back from moving up the economical ladder simply because they started out poor!

My Introduction

I figure since this is our main way of getting to know each other for class this term, I ought to post a brief introduction of myself.

My name is Misty Hill. I am 22 years old and in my 3rd term of the MSEd: Information Technology Program. I graduated from WOU in June 2011 with a BS in Early Childhood/Elementary Education. I enjoy spending time with children and watching and helping them to learn and grow. I am the youngest of four children by a long-shot and as a result I am the aunt of eleven children. I've been an aunt since I was six years old and my experiences watching them grow up and teaching them different things played a large role in my wanting to become a teacher.

I currently live in Monmouth, OR and have quite the plethora of pets. My boyfriend and I have ten running aquariums with a total of 26 aquatic animals, two birds, a dog and we have a potbelly pig who lives on a farm for now until we have a larger home. In my spare time I enjoy outdoor activities like hiking, camping, swimming, etc and I enjoy crafty things like sewing and scrap-booking.

I am looking forward to improving my writing skills in this class and getting to know everyone!