google.com
“Colleen Kenyon”
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmkenyon
Other Colleen Kenyons
https://twitter.com/colleenmkenyon
Private social media account
Other Colleen Kenyons
Strange website that shows my full birthdate and zodiac sign, age, address, phone number, mother’s name, husband’s name, and…
Wait, WHAT?
When tasked with reflecting on my digital identity, I thought that I would write a neatly organized essay about how I present myself in digital spaces. My search history would make it clear that I’m a first-time toddler mom who has spent the last two years questioning every symptom, noise, or new behavior and researching the best choices from spoons to sleeping patterns. A Google search would surface references to my current work, local news articles from previous roles, and a mix of links to several other Colleen Kenyons. For the most part, these assumptions were accurate, but then I came across a website that displayed more accurate information about me and my family, neighbors, and contacts than I would like to admit. Clearly, there are things that I had not considered.
First, Google knows a lot about me. Yes, I’m the mom of a toddler. YouTube knows that she loves Nick Kroll and Reese Witherspoon’s rendition of “Shake It Off” from the movie Sing and watches farm animals, Bluey, and every version of “The Wheels on the Bus” ever recorded. Sometimes I am an anxious mom who reads blogs and scans children’s hospital websites about things like breathing abnormalities and safe eating practices. Other times I am more relaxed, registering for swim classes and pulling up directions to new playgrounds. I am always multitasking and prefer to order food, clothes, books, and toys online so that I can spend more time eating, reading, and playing with my daughter. Unfortunately, my penchant for anything that saves me time, energy, or money may also mean that I have shared a great deal of information in several different places online.
This leads to what Google lets others know about me. Initial search results were just as I expected and centered on my professional experiences as an educator in multiple roles throughout my career. I try to be informed about the digital platforms that I interact with regularly and usually opt to have private accounts. Since I know of another Colleen Kenyon nearby, I was not surprised to see photos and links to several others with the same name. But, it was the seventeenth result that stood out as the headline included my full name with the middle initial and complete address. Upon further investigation, there were several pieces of very specific information about myself, my family members, friends, and neighbors listed. Google let me down. No, this is a result of my actions.
The unexpected find caused me to reevaluate my understanding of my digital identity starting at the beginning. Born in the early 80s, I remember using the word processor on our first IBM computer to type final copies of my written assignments by the end of elementary school. As a middle schooler, I recall listening to the awful yet exciting sounds of the dial-up modem waiting to enter chat rooms. When I was in high school, I burned mixed CDs filled with songs downloaded from Napster. And in college, I spent what I can only imagine was too much time thinking about what my AIM away message should say every time I left the room before joining Facebook my senior year. The connecting factor for these activities throughout my formative years is that I had little to no instruction, guidance, or understanding of how it all worked. It’s not that no one cared, but that no one was prepared to offer this support that I definitely could have used.
As an adult, I began to understand more about digital spaces and have become a more cautious participant in digital spaces. I still enjoy learning about and adapting to new tools, platforms, and the opportunities that they offer, but I take into account the costs of using each one. I tend to be more of a consumer than a creator of digital media and I value the separation of my personal and professional lives. This has never been more true than when I found me in a role I had never imagined. I knew in second grade that I would be a teacher, but I did not know that a large part of my work would be creating digital resources even as I left the classroom. This is why I was surprised to find such a detailed account of my life on one website. I thought I knew what I was doing and carefully avoided this situation, but instead, I had actually become complacent.
So, as I work to strengthen my ability as an educator to support others in developing digital and media literacy skills, I am focused on improving my own. I am cautiously trying new things while actively participating in the review and practice of those that are familiar.
