This is who the internet thinks I am:
According to Personas, a project that came out of the Social Media Group at MIT Media Lab, the image above is how the internet sees me. It’s a fascinating process to watch this image in development…as Personas scours the web, you see snippets of text about you from sources throughout the vast internet. I tried it twice, and the question “Who is Teresa Brazen?” was answered differently. Which, of course, leads me to think about perception, in general. Is this depiction accurate? Yes, of course, according to these particular sources. And, no, it’s absolutely off-base and too narrow, if the source you ask is me.
As I watched Personas create a visual summary of my online identity, I kept thinking about something someone once said to me: If you ask 10 of your friend to describe you, you will get different answers, all true. He went on to suggest that maybe it’s the same with God. I don’t claim to know the answer to that one — but as I watched Personas paint a picture of me, I couldn’t help but reflect back on that conversation.
Perception is an interesting thing.
