Digital Identity

Week 7 - Virtual Identity: Who are we, really? Are we a bunch of images on our Facebook page? Are we a bunch of tweets on Twitter? Are we a bunch of embarrassing gifs and political jokes we like or post?

How do we decide to present ourselves digitally? Our online profile can (and should be) a very carefully edited and curated collection that presents us the way we want to be seen by different people on different platforms. I select these platforms to show different sides to the whole person that is me: Facebook is the fun, family-oriented, vacation photo-sharing side of me; Instagram is the fitness and nutrition-focused side of me; this portfolio and blog is the graduate school/education side of me; and LinkedIn is the professional/work experience/you should hire me side of me. All of these digital profiles and traces show a different side of me and it's up to me to curate it and edit it to ensure appropriate reflection of who I want the world to see.

I read Reimagining the Avatar Dream: Modeling Social Identity in Digital Media which explored avatars and how gamers, in particular, select their avatars when playing to present themselves digitally. Some players needed to identify with their avatar; others wanted to explore new genders or races with their avatars. Both options are a way to express identity in the digital realm like a social medial profile would. A slippery slope appeared in this article, however, when the writers pre-selected traits they associated with particular genders and races that begs the question: is this avatar creation biased? How do we break free of this if all avatars have to be pre-coded and programmed? I enjoyed a good discussion on identity and how we present ourselves online with my colleagues.

I watched a TED Talk about how creating a digital self/profile/story is like going through a 2nd adolescence. I know I certainly had growing pains learning how to navigate this and had to learn to set boundaries with co-workers on Facebook.

On to the fun stuff: What I created!

For my challenge this week, I created my first interactive fiction using inklewriter: "So You Want to be a Doctor?" and found it both fun and challenging. It was fun to think about my area of expertise and what I could teach others about - I'm not a physician, am not medically trained, but have worked in medical education for over a decade so I know a little something about the process one takes when becoming a physician. So, I chose to have a conversation with a high schooler who is contemplating a career in medicine. I wanted to show how hard it is to become a doctor, but also to encourage teens to go for it. I gave non-MD options that are still very valuable, respectable, and high-paying careers if they decided being an MD wasn't for them. I struggled with the program because I couldn't find a way to hyperlink to the various sites I wanted to share so that was one limitation I had using inklewriter.

For the Daily Create, I chose to highlight a childhood fear that is really my adult fear for my children.

I decided to make a second Daily Create and get political after hearing a story on NPR about the bump stock device that was used by the Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock this past weekend. It's risky being political in a public digital platform, because it pigeon holes you into a certain camp and can affect how people see you, but I felt it was important to talk about and used it for this project. I hope I'm not being insensitive coming so soon after such a heinous act that killed 58 people and injured over 500, but gun control has to be addressed in our society.

I pondered the possibility that my innocent cat in a box might actually be the next Amazon Echo device (aka the Internet Spy in my home).

Then, just for fun, I posted another one because let's face it, Roomba is the ultimate spy sharing my dirt with the world (or it could be....).

Week 8 - Big Data/Privacy

This week I examined big data and how everything we do - what we search for on Google, what websites we visit (and for how long), all of our digital social connections (friends and followers on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.), and anything we "like" on these platforms is not only tracked and analyzed with algorithms, but it's sold to companies without my knowledge or permission. It's definitely Big Brother week with the articles and videos we are reading which causes me to be a bit alarmed but also resigned to the fact that this is the internet age we live in and there doesn't seem to be any practical way to stop it. We get some amazing tools for free which we buy with our data (Google Maps, GPS, Google, etc. etc.).

One article pointed out how disparities are made when certain parts of society are targeted to be the leaders in purchasing decisions, etc. For example, if only the upper class purchasing data is tracked, then this will set the trend for items to sell and which price points to sell them at, which will put lower class out of reach on those price points and will discriminate against them. Another article pointed out how much our locations are tracked on our smart phones and on various apps and how accurate these location data points can be used to find out who the person is, where they live, and where they work. I read the entire article and chose to turn off most location services on my apps, unless I absolutely require them for the tool (like GPS), but only "while in use". I'm not sure how much this will help someone from stealing my identity of they are so inclined (after all I'm still on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) but it's worth trying in order to reduce the risk.