Tattoos Are For Life

Digital Tattoos

I do not have any tattoos because of how permanent they are. I have learned the hard way that I outgrow my likes the older I get which is why I could not commit to a tattoo. My thought process is that I would have to like that tattoo forever which is something I can't promise myself. I feel the exact same way when it comes to any posts that I make on social media. This is due to the fact I posted a lot of embarrassing photos or statuses on different platforms. I would have never thought that I would make myself cringe from reading old postings. Not only can I see it, but the whole world could have the chance to see it too which is even worse. I think posting online is very similar to tattoos because you are making an imprint on the world just digitally. In "Digital Tattoos in the Industry" by Rebecca Soto, it is mentioned that, "A digital tattoo is an individual or business 'footprint' or digital identity. In this connected world, immediately after meeting someone we can find out their address, birthdate, where they were yesterday and where they work.". Right after reading this, I couldn't help but laugh. It is certainly not something that was common before the internet, but now it is. People are quick to look up information rather than simply asking the individual that they are looking up. There is so much information that could be gathered from different websites which could be scary. The simplest and smallest activity online could connect the dots to various other ones. I was always told to be careful with what I post online since employers will look up social media accounts in order to get details before calling someone back for an interview. In our technology dependent world, it has been a societal norm to look up information no matter if it for professional or personal reasons. 

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Digging Up Mirela

The first website that I looked up myself on was Google. On the first page of results, I found two of my photos from back when I was in high school. I have posted these photos on various social medias, but they still exist on NSTA and Etsy. I used them as profile pictures, but I'm certain there would be more if I wasn't private on my social media accounts. After the photos, the next result was a few individuals with the same name as me on LinkedIn which I don't have. Following that is my employment at my current job which includes my job title as well as my work email. A YouTube account comes up as well, but it isn't mine. The last result is my account on ResearchGate which I created when I attended Dominican University for my undergrad. 

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The second, third, and fourth websites were extremely similar. These websites included ZabaSearch, Fast People Search, and Intellius. All three of them had the city that I live in and some even had my exact address. The phone numbers that were listed are not mine, but they are my relatives phone numbers. Two of the three websites had my correct age while the third was a bit off. I found this a bit frightening since anyone could look up my name and see where I live. Also, my name is very unique so it is easier for people to find my information accurately and quickly compared to someone with a common name. 

The fifth website that I used to look myself up was Nuwber. I found this was interesting since it listed my information, but my relatives as well. It even had the names and addresses of multiple neighbors. The best part of Nuwber is the fact that it has a section for astrological signs. With people my age, astrological signs are becoming a big deal with people not talking to a certain sign. It always starts as humorous, but then gets to the point that some individuals are serious about it. This big shift in signs and star alignment has impacted the way my generation interacts with one another. I truly would have never thought that something as that irrelevant would matter to a person's identity. 

The sixth website that I used was BlockShopper which broke down the property details to where I live now. The information that was included was purchase price, current owners, assessed value, property taxes, lot size, home size, and sales history. There was some details that I didn't even know of, so it was shocking to see such detail posted online. 

The seventh website was My Life. This website immediately caught my attention because it had a reputation score which mine was 2.74 to 3.89 out of 5. Once I read this, I was worried that I wasn't a good person. It brought me back to when posting a status to rate a person was a thing back in the day. For the low rating of 2.74 out 5 meant that I was at a 55% for my reputation score. I didn't even know what the reputation score was but I was worried since I got scored so low. After researching, I still am not sure what it means, but it definitely affected me negatively. As I continued going through the website, I found my birthday listed which was one of the only websites to have that information. 

Reflecting on Digging Tattoos

Overall, I felt a bit weird since so much of my personal information was listed on multiple different websites. It makes me feel unsafe since it is so easy to find out where I live. I certainly think twice about what I post online as it is, so I wonder how this information could be more private. A lot of the websites that I looked through were ones that I never heard of before. I was shocked to see how much detail was included like a list of my relatives, some that I haven't spoken to in years. It was interesting to see my old photos through Google since they were ones that I used a long time ago. This shows me how what I post truly does stay forever like a tattoo. 

I believe that this is a skill that should be taught to students since many of them don't understand the impact that technology has today. They might not understand the severity of what they are posting, and how once it is posted it can be a challenge to erase what was posted. I have taught lessons about online safety in Social Emotional Learning (SEL). To think that my personal information is posted without my knowledge, I could only imagine what other information is out there. Students might not understand the impact of what they say or do online. I think that these lessons should start the moment a child is being active on social media or websites where they can talk to others. They might not know who they are talking to which is why that is a perfect opportunity to teach online safety. This is also important for multiple different adults in their lives to stress the importance of being careful with their virtual presence. A lot of my students have their own phones along with many different social media accounts. This is already alarming for myself since they are only fifth graders. I could only imagine what they post or talk about online. I would hope for them to think through what they post online. Also, I would hope that parents and other adults are reinforcing the same message. It truly takes a village to keep our students safe in every way possible which is why we are all responsible since we are the adults.