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Digital Tattoos

Digital Tattoos

A digital tattoo is similar to getting a real one on one's body: it is permanent and provides meaning or insight about that individual. When we go online and post on social media, we don't always think about how the post will affect us. However, digital tattoos provide others with wanted AND unwanted information about us. It is important to know what your digital tattoo looks like to be aware of what others can see.

This week, I ended up researching my own digital tattoo, in something called a data mine. Being someone in education, I am a very public figure. Students, parents, and employees can all have access to information about me online. I used several different websites in search for my digital tattoo, which are highlighted below:
The first website I used was Google. I ever so often hear about people "googling" themselves to see what is out there. I put my full name in, but I was surprised to find out that nothing was coming up in terms of pictures, my Facebook account, Twitter, etc. Then I realized this might be because I use a nickname many times on my social media accounts: Christy. When I typed in my nickname, my Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and a picture showed up about myself (from my YouTube account).

The second website used was Facebook. As I typed my name in, I remembered an account setting I put into place due to safety reasons. I cannot be added or found unless there are mutual friends between the searcher and I. In high school, I was getting friend requests and messages from people around the world. I put this into affect in order to only receive requests from people I might know. Due to this, my profile does not show up when either my full name or my nickname is put into Facebook.

Next, I typed my name into YouTube. Below is a picture of what I found:

Two YouTube accounts popped up: one I made recently and another from college. Several videos were shown, including one of myself reading a book about dinosaur, which got 3.4 thousand views! My current YouTube account is being used to save videos related to my science curriculum, and to post screen casts created for my EDU776 course.

Lastly, I typed in my full name into several websites known for finding information about family members, work, criminal records, and residency. Here are some pictures of what I found:




These websites provided information about my current age, where I live, and who I am related to. There were a few things I found very interesting:
  1. PeekYou shows that I am related to someone named David Lichtenwalter. I had never heard that name before, so I dove a little deeper. It turns out he is a dentist in Glen Ellyn, but it still did not ring a bell.
  2. PeopleFinder actually shows where I currently live, and the addresses of where I used to live. It even calculates how long I lived at each address. It  lists my family members, and further suggests I am related to the Lichtenwalter's. I saw the name Betty Lichtenwalter and realized this was my grandfather's second wife. We are not related by blood, which I find interesting that she would show up as a family member.

Conclusions

After doing a data mine, I have realized how detailed information is about myself. It is a bit scary that someone can find my address so easily, as well as who I am related to. Second, I found out even a very distant family connection can be displayed on websites. Lastly, I can see the importance of knowing what is online about myself. I do want to continue to create an online identity, but related to education rather than just for personal use. I think it is important to be accessible when it comes to my job and providing information on who I am as an educator.

Additional Info on Data Tattoos




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Comments

  1. CristinaDecember 7, 2019 at 9:28 AM

    Christine, that is amazing that you got 3.4 thousand views on your YouTube account!!! I like the idea of creating a YouTube account and saving videos to a specific subject like you have been doing. As far as your data mining, isn't scary to find so much detailed information about yourself? I was also surprised to find such detailed information, which made me wonder about how easily the public can access this about you. I do agree with you about developing an online identity that is relevant to the profession and not necessarily the personal life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. NMZumpanoDecember 10, 2019 at 4:36 PM

    What are your thoughts about conducing something like this with your students? Do you think it is important for them to understand digital tattoos?

    ReplyDelete

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