Cybersleuthing, Digital Identity, The Illusion of Perfection, and The Dangers of Mob Mentality

This past week, my EDTC 300 classmates and I were challenged to cybersleuth a partner to determine what we can find out about their digital identity. My partner was Noelle, and I spent a while using typical search engines like Google and Duck Duck Go as well as looking through social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to see what I could find about her online. 

via Pacific Standard

The results of my sleuthing revealed nothing shocking about Noelle! Many of her accounts are private, so I could only gather information from her bios, which typically revealed her hometown, her pronouns, and that she is an Education student at the University of Regina. From her Instagram bio, I did find a link to her open VSCO account, which allowed me to find her boyfriend's name and profile and, through his photos, find her birthday and age. Her Facebook was also relatively private, but I could find her year of birth (confirming the information I found on VSCO) as well as her mother's name, the high school she attended, and her previous Saskatchewan Polytechnic education. On TikTok, although her account was private, I could access her followers and accounts she followed, which would potentially allow me to identify other friends and her interests. Although my social media sleuthing revealed the majority of the personal information I could find about Noelle, I found more professional content by searching using search engines. On Duck Duck Go, Noelle's professional Twitter account was the first search result. Her Twitter bio lists that she is interested in inclusive education and education technology, as well as listing her pronouns. It also links to her ePortfolio and blog, demonstrating professionalism and educational interests. Beyond those accounts and some of her comments on peers' EDTC 300 blog posts, all I could find using strategic location-specific Google searches was a few 5K Walk/Runs in Regina where she was listed as a participant. Ultimately, Noelle's digital presence is very professional, and her Twitter and ePortfolio in particular present a good overview of her views and values as a preservice educator.

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Digital identity is something that's very important for everyone, but particularly for educators, to consider and monitor. Personally, I created a new Twitter account when I joined the Faculty of Education for professional reasons. When I reflect on why, it's not because my personal account has anything inappropriate or scandalous on it (it's mainly Retweets about the CFL and the occasion update about something mundane like my Wordle score or Duolingo streak). Instead, I created a second account because I wanted to create a second online identity - a professional one. 

Although it may sound odd at first, is creating a second digital identity really a bad thing? In my offline life, I also present multiple distinct identities depending on the situation. Think about it - do you talk to your boss the same way you do to your parents? Do you discuss the same things with coworkers as you do with friends? Some people might, but I think many people have multiple sides to their identity offline, so I don't see the real harm in doing so online. I think the way I present myself in all online and offline scenarios are all aspects of me and my personality, and I don't think it's inherently bad to cultivate specific spaces where the focus of my digital presence shifts. An article we read this week notes that it's even incredibly common for people to create multiple accounts for different audiences and purposes. The author also discusses the concept of "finstas", or fake Instagrams that people create to post pictures and clips that they don't think deserve to be posted on their main account. 

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TW: Suicide

via ESPN

The prevalence of "finstagram" accounts proves that people use their main Instagram feeds to show an incredibly cultivated version of their lives. This constant exposure to unrealistic portrayals of other peoples' lives can have detrimental impacts, particularly for young people. The article we read this week about Madison Holleran, who presented a happy image on social media but struggled with depression and ultimately took her own life, said:

"Young women growing up on Instagram are spending a significant chunk of each day absorbing others' filtered images while they walk through their own realities, unfiltered." (Kate Fagan)

This cultivation of digital presence by celebrities and our friends alike, alongside the tendency to compare our own lives to what we perceive others' lives to be, may lead social media users to develop self-esteem problems, depression, or even suicidal ideation, like Madison. This is important to keep in mind when working with young children and adolescents who are still developing their own sense of identity and understanding of the world, both online and offline. Using media sources to help students identify this disconnect between digital presentations of a person's life and their reality can potentially be beneficial. For instance, there are some social media influencers, and plenty of articles, that reveal how filters and photoshop can alter images, discuss the effects of social media on mental health, and emphasize the importance of taking breaks from social media. 

Beyond breaking down the illusion of perfection that can be created with social media, educators should also focus on helping students understand that the repercussions of a single inappropriate post are potentially detrimental. In Jon Ronson's TedTalk, he discussed Justine Sacco, a woman who posted a racist Tweet minutes before boarding an international flight and landed to discover she was the #1 trending topic on Twitter and had lost her job. He started his talk by detailing the powerful positives of the internet, noting that it is a great place to find community and for people to use their voices to confront people or organizations with power and create a form of community-enforced justice. However, he also warns about the dangers of falling into a mob mentality too readily. 

"We are the powerful people abusing our power now." (Jon Ronson) 

He notes that people who are piled on by Twitter users, or otherwise become internet targets, face not only a damaged digital identity, but also often become depressed, anxious, and even suicidal. As a future educator, I can teach students how to avoid becoming an online mob target by not posting inappropriate things on the internet, certainly, but I also recognize the importance of helping students learn to be compassionate towards others. We must be willing to create a dialogue on the internet, to allow people to explain (Justine meant for her joke to be satire, for example), and to be open to educating others and allowing them to grow as a person. These are lofty goals to achieve when teaching responsible internet use but, if accomplished, great things will come from these new empowered, intelligent, empathetic digital citizens.

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Thanks for reading my thoughts! If you have any thoughts to share, or if you'd like to contribute to your own digital footprint 😊, please leave me a comment below! 

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