I decided to categorize my online interactions based on the purpose of my activities and how I participate in the network. On the far left, purely visitor interactions in red. In blue, personal activities like banking, shopping, and maintaining my LinkedIn account where updating my profile for public view is highly recommended. In purple, are my activities that I engage in solely for school. In orange are all of my online interactions for work. All of my interactions with family and friends are coloured green. Next, my two most used platforms outside of work are Instagram and my personal email (yellow). Lastly, Facebook (grey) where I have an existing account for maintaining connections with high school classmates, but have not logged into for more than 6 years.
After a series of adverse online events 6 years ago (related to why I no longer use Facebook), I withdrew my digital presence as much as possible and have only dipped into LinkedIn again during the last two years. A large part of the reason why I have maintained daily resident interactions on Instagram is due to the ability to create multiple accounts – none of which are connected to my name or face. My private account is visible only to friends, family, and coworkers who I have relatively strong connections with. My public account is targeted for online and mutual friends from my husband’s hobby community. This is operated under an alias and mostly consists of daily photos of our food and dogs. This page is public but has a very small following consisting of friends and acquaintances who initially followed my husband’s hobby account.
Digital privacy and safety are some of my top concerns. I continue to explore the boundary between personal and institutional use of digital networks, and how participation in a network to be professionally engaged in a field fits on that spectrum.
Hi Jolee!
Your map looks like what I THOUGHT mine was going to look like when I started out on this assignment, in that your personal social presence is rather sparse.
You mention that you had a series of events that took place 6 years ago that caused you to withdraw your online presence. Did you find this challenging? I similarly attempted to remove my general presence about 5 year ago, and found it a frustrating and in some occasions, fruitless venture.
We have now been catapulted back into developing our online personas – do you think that this mindset will cross into your personal life, or will you keep your digital presence solely to RRU material ?
Hi Paula, thanks for reviewing my map! It’s so difficult to remove yourself from the various networks sometimes. I think peer pressure was a big factor for me. I was fortunate that when I closed my Facebook and LinkedIn pages, and told my friends and family that they can call, text, or WhatsApp me instead – they were all very understanding. Of course, I still had those peers and colleagues who disagreed, but I definitely put my mental health and safety first. I think I was more successful in my venture because I also made it a point to delete these apps from my phone (or hide them if I can’t). I also disabled app notifications so that the only time I felt compelled to participate in the network, was when I wanted to. More recently, I have been more comfortable engaging in networks that my friends and family use because they will show me how they like to use it and what you can do on it. With this approach, I am more than happy to expand into the digital setting again but for now… just the RRU material is a good start.
Hi Jolee,
I like how you have created your map by using colour coding. It is very organized, and the layout makes a lot of sense.
I completely identify with your map. It defines my digital presence to a tee. By no means am I a resident of the internet.
I am sorry to hear about the troubles you have had with some social media platforms. The internet can be unsafe. I have had my fair share of issues, and that is why I stay away from Facebook.
I like the question from the previous comment. I am trying to answer that question myself.
Hi Rajen, thanks for your comment. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in my mapping. I think your phrase “stay away from Facebook” says a lot! I do find that different networks and platforms cultivate different audiences and residents. I think platforms like LinkedIn quickly caught on because it’s recognized as a professional networking site. I wonder if there is a trend for people to put on different hats and become different types of keyboard warriors depending on the digital environment?
I absolutely agree with what you’ve said about adverse events and online presence. I’ve only dipped back into Facebook recently and have deleted my old Twitter account and started a new one entirely after about a 2 year absence from them. I find them both to be quite toxic, so I sympathize with adverse experiences. It’s very hard to be entirely absent from online spaces, although I find generationally I’m definitely not present in some (like TikTok and Snapchat).
Do you think you’ll reboot any online presences of yours as part of this program, based on the results of this exercise?