Attack of the Black Apostrophes
 |
| Image from Online Writing Jobs |
I remember being in elementary school and having to write my name in the bubbles for standardized tests and always asking the teacher, "what do I do about the apostrophe?" Some told me to leave a space and others told me to ignore it. Then as we got more into the digital age the apostrophe turned into ' or something similar when trying to type my name into websites. From my medical provider login to the salon where I get my hair cut, my name is misspelled and there are multiple versions of me in their system.
So when going on a digital deep dive of myself this week it was nice to see that none of that has changed! In most instances my name was changed from O'Neill to Oneill along with my associated family members. My family's genealogy goes back to 1232 Ireland with our first king whose last name was spelled O'Neill - so this spelling has been around for awhile and it really irritates us when it's spelled incorrectly. It also didn't help growing up in Baton Rouge, LA and graduating from LSU when Shaquille O'Neal came along...
Honestly, I was thinking I was going to find a lot of pictures of myself from places like MySpace or other random, outdated early social media sites but I didn't. I searched 9 different database tools to find myself using an incognito tab. The results were kinda lame when information was found.
Sites & Their Results
1. Nuwber - this one has zero information on me
2. Google and Google Image search: My art Facebook page is listed about halfway down on the main search page. In the Images search, which I think is relevant to being an illustrator, an article I was featured in for Shoutout Atlanta was also about halfway down.
3. Intelius - even entering in all of my information, my search was still listed as being too broad
4. & 5. Peek You/Spokeo - Peek You directed me to the Spokeo website which listed some old addresses, no current address, and some variations on my name like Laurence G. Oneill (this was listed as one of my personal AKA so that was weird). Despite being born and spending 3/4 of my life in Louisiana, listing Louisiana didn't bring up any record on me
6. Truthfinder - this one seemed to be the most promising and waiting for my record to be generated took nearly 10 minutes. It also felt the most click-baity/catch them cheating/hidden records of all the ones I looked at. This one really seems to be the one that if you were looking to dig up stuff on someone then it's the one due to a lot of the questions and prompts like "do you think they have a criminal record? you'd be surprised!" After waiting 10 minutes, I never got to see the profile because then there was a paywall.
7. Radaris - this one has the most I found on myself that was accessible because it seems to have aggregated my resume information. But it includes a photo and some other resume information from another Lauren O'Neill. The only social media link it has it to a blog that I wrote back in 2013.
8. Facebook - I don't even show up in the search list for Lauren O'Neill.
9. LinkedIn - my profile is found about halfway down the search list.
Thoughts On What I Didn't Find
Harken back to a few posts ago when I talked about being a digital native and I'm not surprised by the lack of information on me because I don't have a big footprint.But you know who does? Someone named Lauren O'Neill-Barker who is an interior designer with Martha Stewart and Lauren O'Neill who is an illustrator. So they came up a lot when I was starting out with a basic Google search and Google Image search.
As someone who dabbles in the arts, I was a little bummed out to not find myself on the internet in any sort of artistic capacity. There was the one article by Shoutout Atlanta, but nothing else. It's equally more important to set myself aside here when there are literally two other Lauren O'Neills out there doing what I do!
It was a relief though to not find any wild images of myself out there from my roller derby days or my college theatre years (although that was just after Facebook was starting to become a thing). These were the things I was most anxious/nervous to see as a professional educator. Ever since I started teaching in some capacity, I always kept my Facebook filters pretty secure because it doesn't take much to anger someone. But then again, I do wonder if more is out there but my name is just spelled wrong or the apostrophe is missing...
I would definitely teach kids and parents about the importance of their digital tattoos because social media is a completely different beast from when I was coming up in school. Everyone needs to be aware of what is out there about them on the internet. I think it's up to parents and educators to teach kids about what they post and how nothing is ever truly taken down from anywhere.
Your post is very informative, Lauren. As someone who grew up in the 2000s, I absolutely agree that teachers should teach students about how the Internet is always permanent and endless.
ReplyDeleteYour post is very informative, Lauren. As someone who grew up in the 2000s, I absolutely agree that teachers should teach students about how the Internet is always permanent and endless. (sorry, I posted on anonymous the first time).
ReplyDeleteHi Lauren, thanks for sharing your data mine. I experienced the same thing with Truthfinder. It, too, said I had a criminal record. I wonder if they do this for everyone to encourage people to pay for the full report? I feel similarly about my results. We both do have common names and private social media accounts; therefore, our digital tattoo may be harder to see publicly. It's wild that an apostrophe, or lack of, may be hiding some of your digital footprints though!
ReplyDeleteI was REALLY spooked out at PeekYou! It seemed like it gathered a lot of information about you as well. But, I hear you about feeling bummed and not finding much about your art online. I mean, I don't think it is the purpose of these Data Mining sites to display that kind of information. In a Google Search, certainly! I get articles and links to my bandcamp/soundcloud/youtube in a search for myself. Do you use a username/alias for your art? Maybe that would help!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFrom Mic Guti: From Mic Guti: Thanks for your post, Lauren! I related so much to the issues with the apostrophe in your name, because my other last name has a space in it - or does it? It gets spelled multiple ways by businesses and even by own family.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm often lost in computer systems. I'm married and kept my original name, and this also causes issues since many people still expect married couples to have the same last name.
To make things more confusing, my spouse comes from a country that uses multiple last names and gets lost as well. I know that people who are coming from communities that use different writing forms and alphabets have to be struggling intensively with these issues. I feel like this is a universal design issue that could use some attention.
For those of us who like privacy, maybe these factors make it a little easier to maintain a bit of anonymity. If you really wanted people to be able to find and keep track of you, though, these name issues could really be a headache!
It's interesting to me that you found many errors and false leads. Although our tech is supposedly getting better, the internet continues to be so messy. I remember an old friend who was in library school in the 1990s telling me way back then: "The internet needs a librarian!"
Hi Lauren, I totally understand how having your name misspelled is annoying! My last name is difficult for people to pronounce. It is a German last name, so I wouldn't expect people to know the pronunciation. Some people say "physician" and others say "fuzzy chin." My past students really liked saying "fuzzy chin." LOL. The "ch" in my last name is pronounced as a "k" sound--so Fuzz-i-kin.
ReplyDeleteI agree your post was very informative and the variations about names is so immense that the information may not be the intended one. I believe this is why Professor Zumpano suggested to use various search engines, because without knowing it the use of daily search engines may personalize and obtain personal information. Providing inaccurate search results if someone else might try to experiment with the same search. In addition that there may instances where people share the same name and similar characteristics, but may affect future employers if they searched for the wrong person. This assignment brought awareness of
ReplyDelete....of the digital footprints we leave behind!
DeleteYour issue with finding your name was the same for me, but more in real life interactions. People would often assume that I have an s at the end of my name, so they would be confused when pulling my info because they file by last name. I'm glad all the digital records I found were spelled correctly. I used to be in theatre too, and there's a photo on Facebook with me and the cast as zombies. I'd hate for it to be taken out of context and have people think I was in a fight club or injured in an accident.
ReplyDelete