"Sleuthing" Shyla
I sleuthed Shyla Froshaug. I'll be honest, I've never heard of the word "sleuth." In other words, I creeped Shyla Froshaug. I didn't go to her house or anything, but I creeped her on the internet. Here is what I found out about Shyla in 6 and a half minutes (video below):
- She is in her 4th year of Elementary Education at the University of Regina
- She grew up on a ranch with her parents and her three siblings
- She grew up in Saskatchewan
- Her family owns a ranch and they own 200 cows, 20 horses, 2 dogs, cats, a potbellied pig, and a mule
- She enjoys riding horseback and like to compete in rodeo events
- She enjoys reading and playing the piano
- She went to school in Gladmar, Saskatchewan
- She graduated in 2015
- She has volunteered for talent shows and carnivals and has participated in different programs
- We have 14 mutual friends with one another on facebook
- Her grad dress was a greenish-blue colour
- She was on Team Saskatchewan in a rodeo event
- She has a partner
- She occasionally shares posts on twitter
- Over February break, her and her family went skiing in Montana
- She has a YouTube channel
- She competed in the senior girls breakaway roping event at Agribition in 2014
- She shared a lesson plan online for an outdoor activity for her ESCI 302 class
- Her grandfather passed away on May 23rd, 2016 (my sincere condolences)
In the article "Split Image" by Kate Fagan, she states that: "Everyone presents an edited version of life on social media. People share moments that reflect an ideal life, an ideal self." While this article is very sad, the story behind it and the messages it tells us are entirely true, and they are becoming "truer" in our society. We tend to put a mask over our real lives when posting things over social media. We use filters to enhance our skin tone and facial features. While I am guilty of using filters over some of my Instagram photos, I just recently posted one that was "unfiltered" and raw, and it was a huge step for me because of my confidence level, which is sad because for as long as I can remember I have been "hiding" my imperfections with something as simple as a filter.
Based on Shyla's social media, I was not able to find anything that she posted that was "sad" in any way. I also found her posts were unedited and she was smiling in all of them! She kept her privacy settings on Instagram really private, and her facebook was a little easier to creep because I was able to see all of her friends, what she liked, and some of her pictures. I accessed an obituary of her grandfather in 2016 and was able to find an article of her competing in agribition.
In the YouTube video "How one tweet can ruin your life" the speaker mentioned that individuals were realizing they have a voice. He mentioned that some people take advantage of their power and voice over social media due to some of the things they say and post. It is true. You could be watching TV and a commercial comes on and you decide to scroll through facebook and you see an image that you find disturbing but you haven't taken the time to read through the comments or the post itself to understand why that particular image was posted, but instead you make an assumption about it and formulate an opinion and share your thoughts about it on facebook. Your show comes back on for 15 minutes until another commercial break. You check your facebook again and you see that your post has been shared over 200 times, but not in a positive way, they are shaming you and asking you things like: "why would you even say that?" So yes, we have a voice, and our voices are very powerful. We have cyber and verbal voice, and more often than not our cyber voices are the ones that are most criticized and critiqued due to the fact that you can't hear someone's expressions or tone of voice over a sentence typed on facebook, you can only assume.
I have been very careful about what I put on social media, and I have my privacy setting very restricted to what people can see. That doesn't mean that someone cant find me though, after all the power of the internet is unbelievable, both in a good way and a bad way.
