trolling me by me for me
upon reading the literature on trolling, that was provided on the dgst class cite, i wondered, can i be trolled? but by who? and for what purpose? but, even if they wanted, could folks actually find something i would be ashamed of? and here are my findings.
image one: the google search
image two: social media, facebook
image three: professional profile, linkedin
image four: google images
image five: unfamiliar links
i searched the web for information on milen mehari, in impersonating a troll intent on bulling, i searched the public presence of milen mehari. i took screenshots of key findings in my internet search, then i sent the photos to my phone to edit them on snapchat, which is where i incorporated the red circles, indicating important findings on that page. as jade davis states in the reading, “an experiment in trolling: a teaching moment #futureed,” “… i think there is a place to play with trolling in new spaces of learning. it is afterall a big part of our digital culture. given that we tend to think through things through our theoretical foundation, i find that i am fascinated by the performance of trolling.” trolling as an exercise, a practice to develop and use for good, is an important skill, that i have tested on myself.
i choose to troll myself because i, like jamie nesbitt golden, fall under the category of “women of color [who] are still seen as angry, hostile interlopers whenever we say something someone doesn’t like.” i vibe with golden’s quote and article, “why i’m masquerading as a white bearded hipster guy on twitter (despite being a black woman,” because i am both black and woman, and have a disposition for pissing people off with my progressive agenda. and while my online presence, as can be observed from the images above and as is explained in the next paragraph, is very limited and guarded, i recognize that my views and identity may at some point be under attack.
so, what were my findings? image one was interesting, im assuming that the links at the top are the most searched/clicked on. it makes me think of how now that i have a website, that is what i would like to be the most present presence of me, because it is such a curated identity, and that was the motivation of the dkc (digital knowledge center of umw) for creating this domain space in the first place. image two, i don’t have a facebook, so none of the results are me, and presuming that my troller knows my name and face, they would find this page unhelpful. image three, my linkedin page, which, yes is me, and it has my university and hometown –which i put– but it still feels invasive. i guess the negative intent of the troller makes the way i view the presence of even my university and hometown as, too reveling, or vulnerable. image four, google images of me, all the images that are circled in red are of me, and the ones that are underline, are not of my face but i know are directly linked to me. i think they are relatively good pictures so i am not uncomfortable by that, especially since their context is a good one, (they are me at my internship, performing poetry at an award ceremony, a report i wrote, me facilitating a workshop, and receiving an academic achievement award). and image five is of a website that published/picked up a report i wrote.
so all in all i feel fine about my results/presence online. in the article “digital identities: six key selves of networked publics,” bonnie stewart identifies “the neo-liberal, brand self” as one of the six identities. i mention this because i think it fits well into how i would define my presence at the moment, stewart also refers to this presence as “me, inc,” which i feel is so fitting to how i perceive and present myself online. while i am not deceptive, i actively filter what i present to the digital world. that is why my presence on the internet is so “professional” and limited, at least what i was able to find through google searches. as i have learned from the dgst101 course, i know people can find very personal information like home address and phone number. and the world of technology is already so complex and growing daily that, if someone was interested and able they could track/hack my emails, laptop, phone, personal health records, social security information, exc. exc. exc. it never ends, so I guess it is just better to be a critcal thinker and aware as opposed to simply ignoring what i am uncomfortable with.