It was really interesting to do this geodemographic marketing
analysis on myself – I was surprised at all the information I was able to
gather about myself just about where I am from. When I entered my phone number
of whitepages.com, it showed my location as a town near my house, but not the
specific Chicago Suburb I am from – It showed Hinsdale when I am from Lagrange.
Although I didn’t get the full report, I assume there is even more information
that could be gathered from this website.
By entering in my zip code into the factfinder census, I was
able to find my hometown’s population (31,168), median age (42.5), percent of
high school graduates or higher (91.5%), median household income ($74,125), and
percent of individuals below poverty level (6.6%). Because I choose to look into my hometown versus where I live in
Madison, the website, accessdane, didn't provide any useful information. But I
did look up the house I currently live in and it was interesting to see the
total value! (The last website from the New York Times was unable to work on my
computer because I needed to download a new Adobe Flash.)
The social networking analysis on myself was a little less
surprising. I am very cautious of what information I allow others to see
publically through my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. For example,
I do not allow any of my pictures on Facebook to be public so the only
information one can really see of myself is my name and profile picture. And
with Twitter and Instagram, my profile is set to private so only those that I
accept can see more than my name and profile picture.
I actually did a general Google search for myself a couple weeks
ago in a different class but it’s still always interesting to see what you
find. My Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube profile all come up
on the first page. Also my Athletic Profile on the UWBadgers Website comes up too
- even though I no longer swim for the swim team and my bio is not currently on
the website, it still comes up in a Google search. This just shows that once
something is on the web, it’s out there for good. I also searched the Google
pictures of myself and only the first 4 are actually myself, which are just my
LinkedIn, UWBadgers Bio, Pinterest and Twitter profile pictures. So it looks
like I’m doing a good job at keeping my pictures private, which is what I want.
The only other site I thought to search for that could help
provide individual data to help flesh out my “digital puppet” was Pinterest. By
looking at what someone is pinning on this website, you can see a little bit
more about them and what they are interested in.
Overall, I think the person that a geodemographic firm would see
when they look for me would be somewhat accurate but not conclusive. I am somewhat happy that my existence
online is somewhat vague and not a complete representation of myself. I am hesitant
to have all this information available just because you never know who will be
looking at it and for what purpose.
2 comments:
I totally agree with keeping things private, other then those you choose to release! I didn't even think to do a zip code search to see more about the area specifically that I am from, but it clearly did and would yield some really interesting and slightly telling results. After reading through your post, I think it's pretty cool that a bunch of classes are now requiring you to Google, and also very important! It's odd to think that once something is put on the internet that it truly can't be deleted, even if technically "deleted".
Like you, I'm also very aware of what the public can see on social media. For example, people can't see my Facebook account through search engine. However, once you post it online, the information is out there. If one really tried to find it, it can be found. I'm also happy that my existent online is vague, but I am also kind of how well and how long that vagueness can stay.
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