Online Reputation

I can’t even tell you how many times I've been talking with my mom or best friend and told them some piece of news from one of our mutual friends, to which they respond “Oh, really? How did you find out?”, and every single time the answer is Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. Every single time. And this happens on a very regular basis- at least weekly. Social media is how information is spread these days, and our social media profiles can say a lot about who we are and what we believe as an individual. Our social media profiles build an online reputation for us, and sometimes we don’t even realize what that reputation is. For this assignment each member of my class was given another member of the class to research online and discover their online reputation. We were told to find all the information that we could about that person, discover trends, and notice patterns. I have been assigned to research Derek Misener, and have been discovering his online reputation over the past few days. 

One of the first things that I noticed about Derek is that he loves his family. The first place I checked was his Facebook profile, which I was limited in what I was able to see because we aren’t friends, but I was able to see some of his pictures, almost all of which included his wife and/or daughter.  Derek also has his relationship status updated to reflect that he is married. Twitter was another platform that I searched for Derek on and also found evidence of his love for his family. Below is a picture of his Twitter bio:

Derek obviously cares about his family a lot, by putting that he is a “husband” and “proud father” he is publicly saying what matters most to him and wants everyone else to know that he loves his wife and daughter. 

Another trend that I noticed was Derek’s love for USU sports. This was mostly prevalent on his Twitter account, where he tweeted his support of USU’s athletic events, and pictures of him and his wife and daughter getting ready to go to various events. Here are some examples:

Derek shows a genuine interest in USU sports, and doesn't seem like a bandwagon fan that just gets interested when the team is doing well. He encourages other students to support the sports teams as well, and has his whole family involved in supporting the University. 

A final thing that I found is that Derek is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as the LDS or Mormon church. One specific post that I found was an article that he had shared on his Facebook profile which reflected the Mormon church’s views and attitudes towards homosexuality. Homosexuality and gay marriage are very controversial topics that many people avoid talking about, especially when religion is brought into the conversation. Derek posting this article shows that he really believes his religion and supports their stance on the matter of homosexuality. 

Social media and the internet can tell a lot about a person, whether we like it or not. Once something has been posted to the internet it is very difficult, if not impossible, to erase it. Because of this we need to be aware of the things we are posting and the reputation we are building.