I really enjoyed this prompt. I wanted to see my Twitter archive, but because of technical difficulties, I looked at my Facebook archive. As much as I hate to admit it, I was one of those annoying middle school kids that filled you newsfeeds with annoying selfies and other pointless posts. I made my Facebook profile in 8th grade, so there was plenty of content to look at.

I once asked my mom why she was stalking me and liking my Facebook posts from weeks ago and she said, “If you make a Facebook, you are asking to be stalked.” If you stop and think about it, that is basically true. When you post a picture or change your status, it appears on your friends’ newsfeeds. If you don’t want people to look at your profile, why would you make one in the first place?

One thing that stood out to me was my name change on Facebook. During senior year of high school, I was joking around with my friend, Zack, about how everyone was changing their Facebook names so colleges couldn’t look at their pictures or any other information on their profiles. For example, one girl named Ali, changed her name to Ali Gator. I had nothing to hide, so I didn’t even think about changing my name.  Even if I did, changing my name wouldn’t hide all of my information. I wasn’t naive enough to think that changing my name would stop colleges or employers to find me. Once you post something on the internet, it is there forever. I asked Zack to come up with a clever name change for me just for fun. He decided on “Car Lee Rows.”

My Facebook archive brought back a lot of memories. I think some people would have been freaked out to see that everything they posted could be sent to them as a file with one simple request. One of my former bosses gave me some great advice. He said, “If you have to ask, don’t post it.”

The Guardian article we read from about the NSA was really effective, but I think the effectiveness was more about the layout of the site than the content for me. It is formatted like something you would see on a crime show. Like Preston said in class, I don’t have anything to hide. Is there any point in me worrying? If anything, Marwick’s piece had a bigger impact on me because it talked more about specific targetted advertising. The fact that Target is studying your shopping history concerns me more than the fact that the NSA is collecting generalized data with the intention of protecting us.

In the end, I think we need to be cautious about what we do and what we share. Don’t do anything you have doubts about because it could come back to haunt you.