Post #12 (Final): Auditing My Online Social Media Presence

My parents barely use any social media, the only one being WeChat, a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. Neither of them are very tech-savvy, and therefore they did not give me advice, nor monitor my social media as a kid. I had never heard of anything like a “digital footprint” and, for a long time, I was under the impression that deleting a post on Facebook or a picture on Instagram meant it was permanently deleted from the Internet for good.

It wasn’t until in middle school where I learned the truth about being safe online. I was finally taught the importance of being cautious about what I put online. Since then, I’ve done my best to be careful about what I reveal about my self, and have done a pretty good job in keeping a clean digital footprint.

My Online Footprint & Personal Website

I have a larger online footprint than I’d like to admit. I own an account for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Twitch, and Linkedin. I don’t use most of these frequently, and some I don’t use anymore at all. However, they all still have some information on them from myself. Some of them have my full name, and many of them contain information about my personal interests, such as the games I enjoy and music I like.

I do have a personal website. This website is made to showcase my work as a game design student. I use my personal website as a portfolio so potential employers, as well as game design industry members, can see my work and potentially hire me.  I have a section for games I’ve created, personal art pieces/game art bibles, and an “About Me”. This website shows my full name, personal email, Linkedin, and game dev Twitter account.

A small section from my personal website

My Social Media Accounts

The first social media account I created as a Facebook account when I was 11 years old. However, I did not post things for years; the only use I had for Facebook was playing games like Farmville 2 and Restaurant City. I only started posting on Facebook when I entered high school. In high school, my main uses for Facebook were to post photos about my life as an online “album” and keep updated with my high school’s marching band. Last year, I used it to keep updated with my sorority and Greek life events, but now I don’t use it for anything at all.

I used Instagram much more actively in middle and high school than in college. I would post pictures from vacations, concerts, and winter guard competitions. In the past year, I have posted 5 times, with the last one being from nearly 6 months ago: 3 pictures about my sorority, 1 from a fun photoshoot with friends, and 1 about a BLM protest I participated in.

My Twitter is used as a casual place to showcase what I do in terms of game design. I post about art and 3D model WIPs and games I create. I tweet on it pretty irregularly, but I take extra care to make sure I do not tweet or post about controversial things that could be seen as unprofessional or problematic.

Screenshot from a game I created

I use Pinterest regularly for a variety of different interests. I save pictures of art tutorials and references, fashion that I like, ideas for my bullet journal, college dorm tips, writing prompts, and nail inspiration. It is a place that I draw a lot of creative inspiration from. I also use Reddit, but I am a “lurker” on that website, which means that I read through posts and comments from other users more often than I post and comment myself. Most of my posts and comments have to do with posting pictures of my bullet journal, which is a hobby that I’ve been very into since my senior year, as well as voicing my opinions on certain TV shows I like.

My "bullet journal" Pinterest board

My Twitch.Tv account is the social media site I use the most. It is a website that people can use to livestream to viewers, and is most commonly used for people to watch others play games--but streamers can also do non-gaming activities, such as art, “just chatting”, and more. I stream pretty regularly as a way to connect to other people who enjoy games and meeting others as much as I do. I mainly stream games such as League of Legends, Stardew Valley, and Among Us, but I also stream art and other variety games. Many streamers use their webcam to give their stream a more “personal” touch, but I go a different route. I am careful about what I reveal about myself on Twitch because I stream under an alias; viewers know my first name but not my last, and since I don’t want too much information about me revealed, I stream using a virtual avatar.

Virtual Model I use for streaming on Twitch

The last social media I use is LinkedIn. I don’t use LinkedIn too often. For me, its main purpose is to look at job listings and have recruiters be able to find me. I also use it to connect with professors, friends and industry members I meet. I make sure to keep my LinkedIn professional and clean, and list out a lot of my achievements and accomplishments to ensure that I look my best.

What information Have I Given Out?

As stated previously, I do give out a decent amount of information about myself on the internet. It varies from each of my different social media accounts. My Pinterest shows a lot of my interests and hobbies (interior design, journaling, writing, art), while Twitch shows only a few (games and art), while Reddit mainly shows that I like journaling, The Office, Hell’s Kitchen, and Taylor Swift. I like to think that the information I have given away is relatively harmless, and can’t easily be used against me in the future.

Post #11: EOTO Mediasphere (Online Influencers)

Being an online influencer is a relatively new job that has dramatically increased in popularity in the last few decades. Online influencers are regular people who have built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. They make regular posts about that topic on their social media channels, and through this, they generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views and opinions. Online influencers have the power to affect others' purchasing decisions because of their authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with their audience. 

There are many types of online influencers, such as artists, YouTubers, and more recently, Tiktokers.

YouTube was one of the first platforms that made “online influencing” a job. A few months after YouTube’s launch in 2005, the website was getting over 8 million views a day and growing more and more in popularity every day. Many regular people were creating at-home videos to share to others just like them. In December of 2017, YouTube launched its “Partner Program” to select popular creators, which allowed them to earn money from their content based on ad revenue. This allowed the possibility of making videos as a YouTuber go from a simple hobby to an actual career. Among the first content creators offered partnership were Smosh, Lonelygirl15, LisaNova and renetto. Not even a year later, the most successful creators were earning six figure salaries.

Today, online influencers have much bigger audiences than in the past. This can easily be seen through TikTok, a relatively new social media platform that launched in September of 2016. The most famous and popular TikToker, Charli D’Amelio, has over 102 million followers as a dancer and online influencer. The rise of her stardom and popularity has been attributed to her content being deemed relatable and authentic, but regardless, Charli is widely regarded as the “undisputed reigning queen of TikTok”.  She has appeared on a Super Bowl commercial, as well as ABC television and more. She stars on a reality TV show that features her family, published her own book, and has her own nail polish collection, makeup line, and sweatshirt collection. Dunkin Donuts even named a limited time drink after her called “The Charli” in September 2020. 

 

Addison Rae, 2nd most popular TikToker (right) with Charli D'Amelio, most popular Tiktoker (left)

Post #10: EOTO Theories (Agenda-Setting Theory)

The agenda-setting theory was first introduced in 1972 by two college professors, Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. The pair surveyed North Carolina voters during the 1968 U.S. presidential election. Through the information they got, the two built the notion that the mass media sets the agenda for what people should care about. Thus, the agenda-setting theory was born.

Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw

The official definition of agenda-setting is described as the "ability (of the news media) to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda.” This theory refers to how the media’s news coverage determines which issues become the focus of public attention. So, in other words, more news coverage means more public attention, which then means more weight, focus, and attention on a certain thing. This could also mean that the mass media is missing, or even ignoring, other stories that could be of equal or even higher importance.

An example of agenda-setting would be the BLM protests that were all over the news media earlier this year. Of course the BLM movement is extremely important and deserve the recognition, but many other happenings and events were being missed because a lot of the public’s attention was drawn towards the movement.

There are three types of agenda setting. The first one is public agenda setting, where the general public determines the agenda for which stories are considered important, and which ones are considered unimportant. The second one is media agenda setting, when the media determines the agenda for which stories are considered important. The third and final type is policy agenda setting, which is when both the public and media agendas influence the decisions of the public policy makers.

The agenda-setting theory rests on two assumptions. The first is that the media filters and shapes what we see rather than just reflecting stories to the audience. This would be similar to seeing a sensational or scandalous story at the top of a news site, as opposed to a story that happened more recently or one that affects more people, such as an approaching storm or a tax reform.

The second assumption is that the more attention the media gives to an issue, the more likely the public will consider that issue to be important.  Another way to look at it is this: mass media organizations are not telling us what to think or how we should feel about a story or issue, but rather, they are giving us certain stories or issues that people should think more about.

There are several criticisms of the agenda-setting theory. For one, the theory is very difficult to measure. There has not been much research on the theory, and the research shows that there is not too much correlation between public prominence and media coverage. Also, since the average person has access to internet and/or social media, people can find many news articles and sources on a topic, instead of just relying on one or two sources. 

The second criticism of the agenda-setting theory is that the theory does not work for people who have already made up their minds. For example, someone might believe that his or her elected official was the right choice for office, despite numerous compelling reports to the contrary presented by the mass media.

Overall, it is difficult to convince others that the mass media is setting the agenda.

Post #9: Privacy, Online & Off

In a world full of technology and information at everybody’s fingertips, privacy is essentially nonexistent. This is easy to forget--it seems that every person has a lot of privacy. Every email address, social media profile, bank account, etc. is password protected, and there are many ways to “hide” information, such as archiving or deleting posts and setting social media accounts to ‘private’, but nothing is really completely private. Websites retain information, and can sell that information to other companies. I watched a few Ted Talk videos that discussed privacy (and lack thereof) on the internet.

In Juan Enriquez’s Ted Talk Your online life, permanent as a tattoo, he discusses the lack of privacy on the internet today and compares it to a tattoo: permanent, and … The issue is, this kind of electronic tattoo is much more dangerous, as this kind of tattoo is immortal and will easily outlive the average person’s lifespan. He also delves into facial recognition, and how one single name can lead to finding someone’s Facebook, Google, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. This freaked me out quite a bit, and I looked up my name on Google out of curiosity. I found a ton of results relating to me and my personal life, which was kind of scary.

In Catherine Crump’s The small and surprisingly dangerous detail the police track about you, she introduces this technology that virtually nobody in the audience has heard about: a device that the police and government use to track license plates. This may not sound that crazy or an invasion of privacy, but this information is being stored by police “just in case” it is needed later. The police can see where people are going with these trackers, and paint a profile of a citizen without them even knowing. This was really shocking to me, especially since I had no idea this device existed. It would not affect my daily life that much, since I don’t (and will not) do anything to break the law or get me in trouble, but it is still unsettling, knowing that I can’t do anything about the government tracking my license plate.

The story that affected me the most was Darieth Chisolm’s How revenge porn turns lives upside down. She opens up with an incredibly emotional story about how her ex-husband being sent a website full of explicit photos of her. She details how she felt humiliated, embarrassed, and ashamed, and how she felt like “my world was coming to an end.” You can hear the raw emotion in her voice as she says this, and I could practically feel her pain and how devastating it was to her.