Stalking my Professors
For this week’s blog post, it was my job to stalk my professors. As someone who doesn’t have an extensive background in stalking people, I was pretty surprised how much a simple google search can reveal.
I will begin with professor Teaff. Her full name is Elizabeth Anne Teaff (EAT), which makes for a pretty cool acronym. She was born in June of 1974 and raised in Gloversville New York. Professor Teaff attended Fulton-Montgomery Community College from 1992-1994, the State University of New York at Potsdam from 1994-1996, Virginia Commonwealth University from 1997-1998, and University of South Carolina from 2003-2006 where she got her masters degree in Library and Information Science. In January of 2003 she began her work at Washington and Lee. In her 17 years at W&L, aside from working as a professor, she has occupied the positions of Interlibrary Loan Coordinator and University Library Access Service Manager.
Besides her passion as a librarian, professor Teaff is really into flowers, spiders, and cats. She proudly shows off snapshots of the flowers growing in her garden, spicing things up with the occasional picture of a spider or a cat. While her feed may not be especially diverse, it is super colorful and very aesthetically pleasing. She describes herself as “quite and quirky” and reps the #resist in her bio. After taking a closer look at her Facebook and twitter, I also found out that she is a LGBTQ+ supporter, likes the Revelers, and is an Ohio State Buckeyes fan.
Now I will move on to professor Abdoney.
She was born on June 16th 1976. She grew up in Florida and attended the University of Florida where she got her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Anthropologie (she was also part of Alpha Xi Delta at UF!); professor Abdoney later studied library and information science at the University of South Florida. She is a member of the Virginia Library association, the Association of College Research Libraries, and the American Library Association. Professor Abdoney has been at Washington and Lee for nearly 15 years and currently serves as the head librarian at the Telford Science Library at Washington and Lee University.
When Professor Abdoney isn’t spending time with her husband Ned, her son Emmet, or her carts, she is probably busy tending to her garden. Her Instagram looks quite similar to that of professor Teaff: There are a lot of pictures of flowers, plants, and cats. Another one of her hobbies is to sew. She shares all kinds of neat things she has made; if you need anything ranging from a hand sewn Christmas ornament to pajama pants with cats on them, professor Abdoney’s got you. If you give her some thread and a needle it seems like she can make just about anything. Professor Abdoney is a feminist and supports the LGBTQ+ movement (just like Professor Teaff).
After having stalked my professors, I feel like I understand pretty well why they decided to teach this class together. Their digital footprint is pretty similar: they both have a more liberal view, support LGBTQ+, and have a love for libraries, cats, and flowers. I believe advertisers could definitely tailor ads to their interests and they are probably shown a lot of ads about cat products, seeds for their gardens, and the latest news on all things libraries.
Personally, I was kind of surprised how much information can be accessed so easily on the internet. Given that Professors Abdoney and Teaff didn’t even grow up with social media or smart phones, there is probably so much more information out there about our generation. In a way, it creeps me out to think that someone could learn so much about me with a simple google search. This exercise has definitely shown me the importance of our digital footprint, and how people can learn a lot about you based on it.
I don’t think I will change my internet/ social media use very much though. I am definitely more aware that people can learn a lot about me online and will form opinions based off of that information. Especially du to all the articles we have read in class such as Levin, Sam. “Facebook Told Advertisers It Can Identify Teens Feeling ‘insecure’ and ‘Worthless.’” The Guardian, 1 May 2017. www.theguardian.com, I think that it is nearly impossible to prevent there from being any information about you on the internet. I have learned how the big tech companies know who we are, what we like, what we might buy, and even how we feel. The most we can do in todays’ age is to try to make the Digital footprint portray us in a favorable way.
https://elizabethanneteaff.weebly.com
https://www.facebook.com/spiderchick
https://twitter.com/elizabethteaff?lang=en
0 thoughts on “Stalking my Professors”