Data Mine of Self

One thing I can say after this data mine assignment is that who knew there would be so many Anna Long's out there!?  

I have always wanted to do something like this data mine assignment.  With technology rising and knowing all of the accounts I have created over the internet in the past 10 years, I have been curious as to what is out there about me and how easily accessible it truly is to find it.  All together the information that was found about me online was my age, my address, my college, my mom, my dad, my step parents, and my brother.  I got to the point of searching where I thought "there has got to be more information about me out there," I went to some sites and tried searching my name again or in different ways and found no luck.

  Beginning my search, I started with google, putting "Anna M Long" and "amarielong" into the search bar.  Surprisingly, the only thing related to me that came up on the first page was the Padlet I recently created for this class about the American Revolution.  The site that presented the most information about me was Intelius.  Intelius knew I went to Central Michigan University for my Bachelors, my address to my house, my age (25 years old), and stated that my relatatives were Patricia Long (mom) and Jonathan Long (brother).   The next site I searched was Peek You.  Peek You had many 'Anna Long' but none of them were identified as a 25 year old female who lives in Grayslake.  Truepeoplefinder was the most interesting find out of all of the searches.  Truepeople identified both of my parents, both of my step parents, and my brother.  I found my stepparents being mentioned as relatives interesting considering my dad just got married not even 2 years ago to his wife.  This was crazy to me that information can be found on the internet that quickly.  Another interesting thing was it named a few names I had never heard of before as my relatives.  I even went and asked my mom/my dad if they knew anyone by Sara Long or Jackson Long and no one came to mind.  

After doing a data mine of myself, I noticed how important it is to teach this to students.  Introducing this skill to older elementary students to middle school students would be beneficial for them to know that what they put on the internet can be accessible to anyone.  Technology is growing day by day and if students know at a young age of what the internet can do and how to search content of oneself, it could benefit them as they grow older to know the capabilities of the internet.  I see way too many young kids on the internet posting inappropriate images, content, videos, etc that all I can think to myself is "they are going to regret that."  

Just the other day I was with my little cousin and he was playing a game on the computer with people he didn't know.  I am not against this by any means but he started chatting with them and told them his address.  This message was posted to anyone playing the game at this time.  This scared me because he is only 8 years old and doesn't know the capabilities of the internet.  I talked to my aunt and uncle and told them they need to start addressing these kinds of things because the internet is way different than how it was when they were young.  I think parents need to address and teach these skills to their children but I also think that teachers and mainly the computer lab teacher to implement this skill into their instruction.