Identity Observation

What I Observed 9/16/10:
The setting is a dorm room. There are two beds, two desks, two chairs, and plenty of sitting room on the floor.  The time is around 10 PM. My roomate and I, plus 4 friends (2 boys 2 girls) decided to hang out there with the intent of completing homework. I focused on two people--Max* and Cassandra*. Max's hair is wild and curly, while Cassandra's hair is tamed and straight. Max was wearing a long sleeve shirt and his jeans down low so his boxers could show. Cassandra was wearing a tank top with jeans and flip flops. They both had their cellphones in one hand and McDonald's hamburgers in the other. Their laptops were sitting in front of them. I had mine too and was secretly taking notes. Both were sitting on the floor with very laidback attitudes and neither of them seemed to be doing any work. There was hip hop music playing from Max's computer.  Their conversation jumped from one random topic to the next--Lilo & Stitch, skateboarding, ice cream, etc.-- and included various swear words. The convo was even flirty and sexual at times. Every now and then someone would take their iphone out and start recording and taking pictures for what else? Facebook! There wasn't really anything out of the ordinary with Max and Cassandra; they were just two typical teenage college students.


This connects to the Identities chapter in Born Digital mostly because of the fact that pictures and video were being taken solely for the purpose of putting it on the internet. Everything that is going to be posted on Facebook adds to their digital identity and some of that stuff may not be the best content to show potential employers. So Cassandra swears and tells crude jokes around her friends and only around her friends. If the video of that gets posted, it becomes part of her digital identity and no one will know that she isn't always like that. The only way people get a sense of who you are on the internet is by what you post and if what is posted is negative then people will view you in a negative light.


*names changed for privacy