Bridges Between Cultural and Digital Worlds in Revolutionary Egypt

 Holding a Ph.D. in Design Studies from Harvard, a Masters of Science in Media Arts and Science from MIT, and a Bachelors of Science in Industrial Engineering from Stanford, Ramesh Srinivasan is a very-decorated academic. He is currently an associate professor at the University of California – Los Angeles working in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

After a trip to Kyrgyzstan in 2007, Ramesh realized that the use of technology by activists was based on the imagination of social networks that spanned local and global audiences. From his observations in 2007, Ramesh decided to return to Egypt in June of 2011 with hopes of speaking to and observing all walks of life to see how various users imagine and interact with the networks that influence them. In his article Bridges Between Cultural and Digital Worlds in Revolutionary Egypt, Srinivasan states (2012), “while networks of social media users may be limited, circumscribed, and actually not directly connected to street action, they still may communicate, or bridge, with other networks that reach and stir peoples across social classes and geographies” (p. 57). Social media activists are able to impact ground efforts by creating a sense of “shared grievance” across a large geographic space. Not only did these networks fabricate a sense of unity, but they also provided anonymity and speed when exchanging information about the revolution. Through these various mechanisms of communication many activists spoke of “leaderless” movements; propagating their ideas to other revolutionaries helped satisfy their political agenda.  With only 5 percent of Egyptians being Facebook users, 135,000 Twitter users, and an even smaller division of these users being politically active, Srinivasan’s informants declared (2012), “Egyptian mobilization was deeply influenced by how born-digital content was re-mediated into forms that the masses could access” (p. 56). With this influx of social media coverage it comes at a cost of unintentional distortion of information. In his example of Twitter, a barrage of reports in conjunction with re-Tweeting from the other side of the globe is a recipe for echo chambers and distorted perception. It is easy to mindlessly reverberate something we heard or saw. Having access to social media is a power that many of us take for granted; Speaking of this power and informant for Srinivasan said (2012), “People at any single point can be a leader on social media…. Anyone at any point can make a Facebook page without any investment” (p. 56).

This article was published in 2012 after nearly two years of investigation in Egypt. Ramesh took the time to speak with university students and faculty, taxi drivers, hotel laborers, corner store workers, factory laborers, engineers, journalists, political aspirants, and labor union organizers. Comprising the accounts of all of these individuals, Ramesh told the stories of what these people deal with daily in order to see change in their society. This article, being that it was published in The Information Society, was probably intended more for academic use but could also be useful to the public. After this publication Ramesh was invited to speak on TED Talks and his article has been cited in numerous journals discussing similar topics.

Initially I felt that this was going to be a difficult read with all of the quotes and cites to sift through but after I latched onto the material it was very interesting and enjoyable. I feel that even though this was an account of something that happened thousands of miles away, it is relevant here and now. The situations Ramesh wrote of are things that happen every day on our campus: political activism on social media, public campaigns, and even “underground” networks. With everything in our daily lives being intricately connected by various imagined networks, does social media through active involvement provide of a platform for social justice and democratic movements?

Work Cited:

Srinivasan, R. (n.d.). Bridges Between Cultural and Digital Worlds in Revolutionary Egypt.The Information Society, 49-60.

Other Articles:

Wolfsfeld, G. (2013). Social Media and the Arab Spring: Politics Comes First. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(2), 115–137.

Hirzalla, F. (2010). Internet Use and Political Participation: Reflections on the Mobilization/Normalization Controversy. The Information Society, 27(1), 1–15.

My Internet Identity

When searching my name on the internet, a lot of the results that I would expect is what I saw.

The first thing I searched was my name on Google. I've done this before so I had an idea of what to expect. The first two results were links to my Facebook and Twitter page. When navigating to these sites, I realized there was more information that the public can see than I initially thought. On my Facebook, anyone could have access to all of my profile pictures and cover photos. I previously thought my profile was completely private. On my Twitter page, nothing is set to private, so anyone that wants to read my tweets, can.

The next few results had to do a lot with my high school football career and disc golf. I am part of the Professional Disc Golf Association, so there was a link to my player profile page. Other links included results to a lot of tournaments around the state and a few articles that I've been mentioned in. As far as football, there was a link to my Hudl profile page, which showed my highlights from high school. There was also a link to my Wissports profile, showing my statistics from my football career.

After the generic Google search, I searched my phone number on Whitepages. When doing this, it told me that my phone is through Sprint and is located on the southside of Sheboygan. I then went to the New York Times Mapping America. I found out that in my home town, the median average household income ranged greatly, depending on the area. In the heart of the city of Sheboygan, there were spots where the median household income was $22,000- $24,000. Just outside of the city, where I live, the median household income was just under $70,000. The racial and ethnic group distribution in my immediate area was 92% white, 1% black, 1% hispanic, 5% asians, and 1% other. When I zoomed out and looked at Sheboygan county as a whole, the distribution was relatively similar: 88% white, 1% black, 5% hispanic, 4% asians, and 1% other.

An interesting twist to my internet identity is that I have a distant relative that lives in Wyoming with the same first and last name as me. For most of my life, I have gone by Jake instead of Jacob. When searching Jacob Pribbernow, instead of Jake Pribbernow, on Google, the first hit that comes up is a link to my relatives Facebook page instead of mine. From there on, its generally a mix between links associated with him and links associated with me.

If someone were trying to create a profile of me based off of Google search results, they could potentially be looking at the complete wrong person depending on if they used Jake or Jacob. If they did choose the correct name, the would most likely assume that I am in the age range of 18-22. They would see that I participated in a lot of sports throughout my life and have a lot of social media profiles. Although most of these profiles are mostly private, they would still be able to consolidate information from all of them and put together a relatively accurate representation of me.

Myself Through the Internet

              I began my search online by entering in my cell phone number one the White Pages website. I was surprised to find out that after clicking submit my city and state was listed. There was also an option to pay $3.95 to see my name and address. I continued to search my zip code on Fact Finder.  I found a few interesting facts about my area, like that the 2010 census total population was 18,320, the median age is 40.6, 87.3% of the population are high school graduates or higher.  I also found out that the median household income was $51,648 and 13% of the population is below the poverty level. I found it really interesting that I was able to find out these specific facts about my area just by entering my zip code.
              Following that, I searched my address here at school on Access Dane. Oddly enough, a picture of the house I live in, the assessment, and the tax summary was given. I felt a little uncomfortable that there was a picture and everything of where I live.. Using the Projects NY Times link, I found that the income is still $51,648 like found before, and I also found the 3% are foreign born.
             Finally I went onto Facebook from a different computer and searched my name. I found out that anyone that searches my name will be able to see all my profile pictures, cover pictures, favorites, work, school, city, and state. For having my profile set to private I was shocked that all of that was viewable, especially all my pictures.  I then when to google and search my name.  Turns out there are a lot of Cassie Hall's because it was very rare for me to find anything about myself.  I did however find a link to my high school basketball game records when I searched "Cassandra J Hall Cudahy W". When I tried searching my twitter I was unable to find it until I searched "Cass Twitter Cassie Hall". Those that find my twitter are capable of seeing my picture, twitter description, and location.
             Basically what I learned through this assignment is that literally anyone with Internet can find out a lot about me, which I don't really like. I still don't like that my house and location are posted online. It's weird thinking about how many people have searched me..

Jacob Sekelsky: Online Information

When I searched my name on white pages all I found was the city where I lived, which was technically incorrect and my cell phone carrier. I found a lot of interesting statistics about my hometown on FactFinder such as the median household income (80,000), percentage of people with health insurance (94.1%) and the percentage of people below the poverty level(7.4%). It was very interesting to see all these statistics about where I live, and it would be cool to look at those statistics versus the national averages. Next I searched my address on AccessDane and found some information about my apartment complex. It surprised me how much a relatively small apartment complex was still worth so much money. The most interesting thing I found in the New York Times site was how little racial diversity there was in my county. I knew that my county was predominantly white, but looking at some other counties made me realize just how much of a majority whites are in my county compared to some others.

Next I searched myself on Facebook, and was able to find my profile pictures, several things I liked, and a few other pieces of information like what city I lived in and my Facebook friends. When I Googled my name all I found where links to some of my social media accounts, my times in some runs I had participated in and a picture of me that had appeared in a local newspaper.

Overall, I am satisfied with the kind of things people can find when they search for me. There was probably a little more information on there than I would like, but I am sure that a lot of my peers have many worse things on their social media accounts and for the most part I have been pretty responsible with mine.

Raechel Gulledge: The Internet Version

After searching myself under various search criteria, I found an abundance of disclosed personal information, that, to be honest, hit a little too close for comfort.

First, I searched my name on google, which brought up my facebook, twitter, linkedin, and pinterest profiles as the top results. I also found many articles back from high school that highlighted my academic and athletic performances.

After that, I looked up my phone number on the whitepages website, and I was brought to a nearby town and the store that provides my cellular service. The website had the ability to further search into my hometown address, other users on the plan, and various other facts.

The factfinder gave me median incomes, total number of housing units, median household sizes, etc.

The AccessDane website provided the information about my local address here in Madison. It showed the property value, the housing value, the total lot value, the owner of the property, and information on school districts.

The New York Times website provided me with information about my hometown. I found that the most common income bracket fell between 100,000-120,000. The racial demographics turned out to be 73% white, 8% black, 12% hispanics, 5% asians, and 2% other. This did not surprise me, as it was evident in my schools that this was a reality. There are 95% high school graduates, 42% bachelor's degrees, and 14% masters present in my hometown. It's evident that I grew up in a typical middle-class predominantly white suburb of Chicago.

The social media search was interesting. Since my name is relatively unique (the spelling) it was clearly pointed to me, or a different "Raechel" who shared that spelling for their first name. I was brought to multiple photos, posts, and tweets that had high trafficked responses in the past. I think that it would be easy to remain annonymous on social media searches because since my computer (used for the searching) knows me and my history, it would be harder to find me if I were using a public computer. You would really need to utilize the other information searched for in this assignment to really find me on a social media site. I think I would be easier to find though, because my name's spelling is more unique.

After doing this assignment, the reality that the internet knows everything we post and never forgets is quite apparent. I now realize how much caution is necessary when posting things to the internet. Once there, always there. Or, so it seems.

Emily McGann: online identity

I began my identity search by typing my phone number into Whitepages. I found information regarding my hometown and my cell phone carrier. I also saw that this site gives people the ability to find out the address, location, family members and other personal information about the cell phone number's owner if you paid. This shocked me.

Next, I explored FactFinder with my zip code. I found out the population(12960), median age (42.7), educational attainment (99%), number of housing units(4496), median income, and so on of my hometown. This site paints a good picture of my home town using statistical and numerical data.

On AccessDane, I searched my address here in Madison, and found all kinds of information about my apartment complex. Some of the information there I didn't even know, so that says something about the power of the internet.

On the New York Times site, I found information about the demographics of my hometown. Such as: over 40% of the people in my hometown have a master's degree or higher, 6% of people in my area earn less than $30000 a year, the median rent is $942, 97% of the population is white, and many more facts. This was so interesting to see information about my hometown in a way I have never before; in numbers.

As I looked through social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter, I was surprised to see all the information I could find. All of my tweets were there and available for everyone to see, and I saw a random group of pictures and post from Facebook. I also found it interesting to see how many Emily McGanns there are all over the world. In terms of social media, I feel as though you have to know who you're looking for, otherwise all the information is so overwhelming.

Concluding with my Google search, the majority of what popped up was profiles to an array of sites, from Linkedin to Pintrest. From what was actually relevant to me, most of what I found related to my high school soccer career, from articles to pictures, which was enjoyable and interesting to see. I didn't find anything that I considered "bad,"but this really opened my eyes about how accessible EVERYTHING is on the internet. It is important that we monitor and clean up the things we decide to post in our name to the Internet.

The Young and the Digital

            S. Craig Watkins is a professor of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas-Austin. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan and is a well-respected figure in the media world and does research that focuses on the affects of technology and the digital world on young adults.

            The very well connected: Friending, bonding, and community in the digital age is a chapter from Watkins’ book The Young and Digital, published in 2009 by Beacon Press in Boston. Watkins also has a website called “The Young and the Digital” where he posts more studies and commentary on the issues of youth and the digital age. Watkins is also very respected in the Hip Hop industry and published a widely known book Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Pop Culture and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement.

            This chapter from The Young and Digital is about how connected teenagers and young adults are through cell phones, the Internet, and other social networking websites. Many claim that these online interactions and connections take away from the authenticity of and even replace face-to-face interactions. Instead Watkins claims that online relationships reinforces close ties and keeps together distant ties. He claims that interaction through technology does not replace socializing in person, but facilitates it and makes it more likely with distant acquaintances. Watkins takes the traditional claim that young adults are addicted to their mobile devices and instead describes it as a “commitment to each other”.  Another point that Watkins challenged through his interviews and research was the idea that young adults meet new friends online. His research showed that this was not the case as the vast majority of people only interact with people online that they are already acquainted with through offline relationships.

            The intended audience for Watkins book is both the young adults in question and the older generations who do most of the criticism of the digital habits of young adults. There were many reviews on Google Books that were generally positive. Many of the reviewers talked about how this opened their eyes and made them realize they were overly critical of young adults. Teachers also seemed to make up a substantial amount of the reviews and they mentioned how they would recommend the book to anyone who interacts with young adults and kids who’s habits are discussed in this book. Library Thing also had several reviews with similar content. Melanie Kohnen wrote one scholarly review I found on the Transformative Works and Cultures journal. Kohnen, a professor at Georgia Tech, criticizes Watkins because he does not talk about communities that exist primarily online. While he goes on at length about online communication supplementing in person connections, he does not discuss examples like fandom groups, or online gaming groups that do not communicate online. She argues that these groups could challenge Watkins’ positive views of digital technology.

            In addition to Kohnen’s critique, the Journal of Addiction has a published article about the problems of cell phone addiction and the antisocial consequences it can have on teenagers and young adults. The African Journal of Business Management also did a study on cell phone addiction and found results similar to those of Watkins. They found that the majority of young adults do not let their cell phone get in the way of face-to-face socializing, or other priorities in life.

Links to articles mentioned above: 

http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/357/227

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jad/2013/912807/

http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380698247_Ahmed%20et%20al.pdf

Online Search

I honestly feel like I found out more about myself from the activity  than I personally knew.

I started out with Googling myself and I found my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram account all on the first page. On top of that I also found three pictures of myself from Newspaper related events, and a lot of my Facebook and Twitter pictures. Finally, I found the article that was written about me in the newspaper from when I was in High School and in Boy Scouts.

Next, I used the White Pages search engine and found out that with just my phone number they could tell my location, the phone carrier, and where the phone was bought, which is about a mile from my house.

After that I used the fact-finder, which was very interesting to me. I found to a lot about my hometown. For example, the population is just under 40,000, there are roughly 19,000 houses in the Roseville area, and the median age is 42.

Finally, I used access-dane and project New York Times both of which could not find my house. I looked at the New York Times project anyway though and it was very cool,  but scary, to see how much information they have about the demographics of the world.

My opinion on all of this is that it is a great thing to have right now, but if it falls into the wrong hands it could be very detrimental to a lot of people. We have seen a recent rise in hackers and people feel obsolete to attacks, but in reality anyone could be hacked.

Brett D'Abate: Online Identity

Upon searching my phone number the neighboring town of Baraboo came to view on the map. Although Baraboo is not my actual hometown, it is within 10 miles of the City of Wisconsin Dells where I did grow up. After searching my zip code I was able to see how this area is viewed by the census; it is a relatively small town with good graduation rates, a large group of veterans, and fairly average American median income. The demographic for my census region was 92% white which was surprising, living there for so long I had grown up with many Native Americans that did not seem to be represented on the map by the New York Times.

I started my social media search on Facebook where I was able to find myself even with a few different variations of my last name. After clicking on my profile (the only one being listed) I was able to see my profile picture, cover photo, and some VERY outdated information about what shows I like to watch, music, books, etc. I was surprised with how little information I was able to access. I thought Facebook was going to be the most revealing of all my social media accounts. After searching for a third-party search engine, I was able to find my Instagram feed. I felt that Instagram was actually my least revealing account. My most informative source of who I am is my account on Twitter; there are no privacy settings and thousands of 140 character thoughts for future employers to sift through. After seeing what information I have made public to anyone at anytime I definitely want to research what I can do to protect myself online.

Finishing my search with Google I was able to find links to most of my social media accounts, pictures posted by my high school, and even my grandfather’s online obituary, which I have never accessed before. The information gained from these searches have some validity, there is some content that is accurate and a lot that is outdated. This exercise gave me some insight into what future employers or anyone for that matter can access. I feel that at this point in time it may be a new societal norm to screen your own social media in preparation for the workforce, something our parents never had to deal with.

Nate Pond - Online Profile

When I looked up my phone number, it came up with my home town and the cell phone carrier I use. The other searches didn’t yield too many results. When I searched for Nate Pond facebook, my facebook was the 5^th result. It took you to my private facebook where you couldn’t see anything but my profile picture and cover photo. When searching for my twitter you are able to find it as the first result, and since my twitter is not private, you are able to see all the cute pictures of puppies I always retweet.

When I googled “Nate Pond” my twitter was the first thing to popup along with a picture of my dad and I at a badger basketball game. Googling my number and email resulted in no information that came back to me. When I looked up my full name with my hometown, my high school alumni website pops up.

This is just a good reminder that even though you may have some private social media, your information is still easily accessible to anyone through various other websites. It goes to show you can’t be too careful.

Evan Gaviglio: Online Identity

I was shocked with how much information I could find from just my name and address. It was interesting to see the census demographic and town breakdown. If I were someone building a profile on myself I would have decided that I am from a medium sized town from northern New Jersey and am close to several major population centers.
For me the Google Search was the most interesting part. I remember doing this several years ago and finding very little information about myself. However, I was able to find much more information this time. I found information about myself from UW and also my high school. I also found my name mentioned in a local newspaper and another website about high school athletics.
Also, my Twitter and LinkedIn profiles also appeared. These could provide someone with additional information about me. I don't actually tweet on Twitter and my Facebook profile is limited to non-friends, but my LinkedIn does provide a good amount of information about myself.
This exercise was a reminder that people can find a lot of information from just a name and people need to remember to watch what they put online.

Rachel Schmidt Online Search

I have a very common name, so when I typed in "Rachel Schmidt" it was very hard to find myself. However, when I added my middle name and typed in "Rachel Shyanne Schmidt" my social media sites were the first hit. My Twitter and Instagram are both private, but you could still see my profile picture and my information. My FaceBook was very private, I could only see my current profile picture.

When I typed in my cellphone number, the location came up as Woodstock, Illinois. However, this is not my hometown. There was also no information given about the owner of my cellphone. After typing in my address, it was interesting that a picture of my house showed up on Google maps. With my address, I found that my home phone number was also public. There was no information about who the owners of the house were.

I typed in my zip code of my hometown and I was shocked to see all of the information that showed up about my town. I was very shocked to see 11.2% of my town is below poverty level. This opened up my eyes because I had absolutely no idea. However, my town seems to have a high education aspect, with 92.8% of the population receiving a high school diploma or higher.

This assignment really opened my eyes and showed me that even when we set our information to "private", it is still searchable for the most part.

Ciara Marino Google Search

Searching different aspects of my life shows that anyone can find so much information on a person by knowing such little to begin with. The first thing I did was the reverse phone look-up. It said my number was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, though I am from a city outside of it. When I googled my number though, no information on my name came up, nor my dad's, who the number is registered under. Also, no information on myself or my family shows up when I look up my address, but this could be because my dad recently moved there.

It is interesting to see how the results change when I google my name different ways. If I type "Ciara Marino," then I am not the first person to show up, as there is a lady who makes work-out videos that pops up before me. I am on the results, just not first. If I add my middle name to the search, I do not show up at all. Also, it says that I am on websites that I do not have an account on, so it is weird to know some people will assume that is me, though it is a different person with the same name.

Dan Conway Google Identity

The geodemographic search of myself showed me that every single detail of our lives are completley public.  Everything from being able to get a Google maps picture of my house by using my home phone number, to a detailed map of the average income in my neighborhood shows the extent to which our lives are exposed.  I did find it interesting that I was untraceable through white pages, due to the fact that I do not own a home.  The census and New York Times site gave the same basic information, but I thought the New York Times site mapped it out in a much more easily understood manner.

Due to the fact that I have such a common name, a general Google search does not come up with any specific information about me.  If I type in my name and hometown, then Google is much better at tracking me down. I came up through my high school website.  I also came up through my youth baseball team.  I never would have thought that something so long ago would still come up as relevant information through Google.

In narrowing my search to social networking sites, I became slightly more visible.  A search in these sights still required me to supplement my name with other information.  Entering my hometown with my name is a sure way to make myself show up on the first page. My twitter is set on private and for the most part hidden, but I was still able to see what my friends tweeted at me, if theirs isn't on private. This is just one of the many loopholes to a "private" twitter. In regards to Facebook, my profile is decently private.  One of the main loopholes with Facebook, is that if the person searching for me has mutual friends, they are able to see my entire profile. Overall, my common name makes me hard to differentiate between the millions of Dan Conways on the sites, but if they are able to find me, they can see more information than what I would expect.

Michelle Toni Google Search

As the assignment asked, I first searched the various website to observe diversity in my hometown. When looking at my county, cook county in Illinois, as a whole it seemed generally diverse (50% white, and the rest pretty much evenly divided between black, asian, and hispanic). However, when zooming in to just my hometown, Barrington, I realized that my county must be very segregated because Barrington had about 90% white and about 5% asian, 5% hispanic, and no black. I then went on to google search various versions of myself, Michelle Toni, Toni, Michelle, Michelle Toni Facebook, my email address, etc. What I noticed is that my Twitter account and Pinterest account popped up on the google search results, but not my Facebook. This could probably be explained by the fact that my Twitter and Pinterest are open to the public as my privacy settings allow them to be visible, while my Facebook is set to private. However, even with my Facebook settings at private, there were a few pictures from my Facebook that still popped up in the google images results. Although most of the results were not me, I'm sure as my online identity starts to build through home purchasing and business profiles and other means, my online identity will continue to grow with it.

Kelsey Strode Google Search

I started by searching my hometown using the New York Times census website, and looking at the Milwaukee area zoomed out, it looks diverse. Once I started to zoom in, however, it is clear that within Milwaukee county, blacks, whites and Hispanics are very segregated; the town in Milwaukee in which I live, Whitefish Bay, is particularly dominated by white citizens. I then went to Facebook and viewed my profile as the public sees it. I was not really surprised by what I found, but several aspects of my identity and my life were made clear. It is obvious I attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and through the pictures that the public is able to see, its evident that I also studied and traveled abroad in and traveled throughout Europe last year. Some of the groups that I am a part of on Facebook were public information for people and those confirm my status as a UW Madison student. After viewing my profile on Facebook, I did a simple Google search of my name, email and phone number. Some of the results that came up were Facebook results for Kelsey Strode, but they actually were not me. My email address surfaced a link to the UW Madison study abroad page, which confirms that information which someone would be able to learn through my Facebook, and no information was available through a search of my cell phone number. I never realized how much information someone can collect about a person, whether or not they know him or her, through simple searches on the internet, and how accurate the information is.