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Online Identify Analysis

Nicholas Galullo

EDU520: Digitally Mediated Teaching and Learning

Post University

Dr. Michele Herrera

Online Identity Proposal

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Most pedological advice on best practices of teaching involves the concept of modeling

for students at some point in the process. So naturally, when observing one's digital footprint, it

is a logical leap to review those who set a positive example for their online identity. The purpose

of this paper is to propose two people with a strong digital presence to monitor and evaluate with

the hope of gaining a broader understanding of how an online identity is crafted and maintained.

Subjects and Platforms

The two individuals that will be observed are Tanya Adorno and John Green. Tanya

Adorno is the Athletic Director for Wolcott Public Schools as well as a Health and Wellness

teacher for the district. Adorno has held these positions since 2016, and during that time, she has

cultivated an active online presence. Adorno's primary focus is to draw attention to the

accomplishments of Wolcott's athletes throughout the district. In order to do so, Adorno mainly

monitors and updates a district website, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram. Adorno's online

presence is a perfect example of how the use of media can enhance her particular interest while

also serving as a reminder to the role athletics play in student's lives.

The second individual that will be monitored is John Green. John Green is an American

author and YouTube content creator. John Green first reached national prominence with his

novel, Looking For Alaska, which was published in 2005. From there, Mr. Green has had several

more hit novels as well as successfully launching a critically acclaimed YouTube channel

alongside his brother known as the Vlogbrothers featuring his Crash Course series of

educational videos. John Green is currently active on his website, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube,

and Facebook. Altogether, John Green is a prime example of the positive impact a media

presence can have on society. 

Data Collection
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The majority of data that will be collected for this examination will be stored in a

Microsoft Excel document. The data points that will be collected are modified from Lima’s

(2018), Professional online Presence and Social Media analysis and Sue Beckingham’s (2019)

Social Media In High Education: Case Students, Reflections and Analysis. What will be

monitored are three main aspects; creating an online presence, maintaining an online presence

and evaluating and online presence. The data that is captured will be stored in the following

spreadsheet:

Creating Online Presence Maintain Online Presence Evaluating Online Presence

Inter-
Online Space Updating Views Alignment Engagement
connectedness

This spreadsheet has three core categories that each hold two subcategories that will be

used to track the overall contributions to the online presence. The goal of the chart is monitor if

the person has created, developed and maintained their professional online identity.

Data Collection

The chart provided in this section is colored coordinated. If shaded Green, the

category is exemplary; if yellow, the category is acceptable, and red denotes a failure. As the

information available makes these conclusions vary for each social media presence, what

signifies an exemplary, average, or failure has no concrete definition. The analysis that is taken

into account for each category is crossed reference with the design of the chart with the

feasibility of the person's capability and standing in their field.

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Analysis of Data

Tanya Adorno uses several platforms for her professional life to a modest degree of

success. The goal of her professional social media presence is to “update & promote the great

things going

on and off

the playing

field” for all

of Wolcott Athletics (Adorno, n.d). The current status of Spring sports has made tracking recent

activity all but impossible, so this analysis focuses on achieving this goal during the 2019 fall

sports season. What is first made clear is that Miss Adorno goes to great lengths to ensure that

these pages are dedicated to raising awareness of the student—athlete and not herself. As a

result. These pages are constructed in a way that demonstrates that they care about the athletics

first (Adorno, n.d.):

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What you can see is that these pages are formatted in such a way that the profile is clearly

designed around focusing on the students and Wolcott athletes and disconnected to any personal

connection she might have. Secondly, the postings are also in line with this philosophy. The

headlines or status updates have a reporter like quality to them. For example (Adorno, n.d.):

“Wolcott Cheerleading turning into a state championship dynasty” 🎉💪🏼🔥 Thank you

Rep Am for their coverage of our program! This dynasty doesn’t come without the most

impressive discipline and commitment individually, to each other, and to pushing the bar

in the sport! Congratulations to the girls and their coaches!!! (LINK TO ARTICLE IN

BIO”

Lastly, her personal social media pages on sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are all

private. This further stresses the idea of taking any opportunity to distract from her personal

goals of highlighting Wolcott Athletics off the table.

The successful implementation for each social media presence varies. It’s clear that Miss

Adorno tried to get the Wolcott Twitter and Facebook off the ground in early 2018 but they

never attracted enough attention to call for consistent updating. However, the Instagram and

website presences she created is much more successful. They are careful crafted, well-
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throughout and have several times more interactions with the public as the before mentioned

social media presences. What is important to note, is that Adorno has appeared to understand

what works to achieve her goals and was does not, and has capitalized on it for the sake of her

overall objective

John Green

In the winter of 2018, John Green posted a video on his YouTube Channel and

announced that he would be taking a one-year hiatus from his social media accounts, including

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Before this announcement, John Green was a prolific user of

these social media accounts and they accounted for a sizable percentage of his online presence.

As an example, his twitter account has over 32,000 tweets, and his Instagram 842 (John Green,

n.d.). The reason for hiatus is because he wasn’t “liking the way he was using the internet” and

was using up to “20 hours” a week going through social media (Vlogbrothers, 2018.). After

Green’s 11th month hiatus, he updated his followers and announced he would not be returning

until “something changes” with specific platforms. Mr. Green does lament that the lack of social

media access has hindered his ability to raise awareness for specific charitable causes but has

been looking for ways to circumvent social media usage and still maintain his generous

contribution (Vlogbrothers, 2019).

Since 2018, John Green has evolved his social media usage and online presence.

Originally his online usage concentrated on the heavy usage of twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

The content he posted on these sites fluctuated from raising awareness to for certain causes to

promoting his writing and own personal takes on situation Green, n.d.).
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Today, the content of the posting hasn’t changed all that much, but the medium in which

he posts has. Mr. Green has further utilized the video post on his YouTube channel,

VlogBrothers, and has created a book club known as “Life’s Library Book Club” and frequently

updates his websites with information for his fans. It’s transparent John Green changed his

philosophy on how his online presence is maintained. He turned to have a focus on interacting

with social media to be a context creator.

John Green is a perfect example some unforeseen factors that must be accounted for

when looking at the success or failure of someone’s online presence. John Green created and

cultivated a successful online presence by anyone's standards, but it was not great for his long-
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term professional success. It was clear that he was burning out. What Mr. Green also

demonstrates is how one can adapt their online presence and still maintain an overly professional

demeanor and not impact the overall goal of his professional existence.

Impact on PLE Development

When creating an online identity is of the utmost importance that the identity is cohesive

with your goals as a professional. While examining the online identities of John Green and

Tanya Adorno, it is clear that they have been conscious to align their online presence with their

professional goals. For Miss Adorno, the focus of her work is clearly on the student-athlete at all

times. Mr. Green, who has made a life out of teaching youths about positive self-identity and

overcoming adversity, models this behavior in the way he has crafted his online identity. In the

creation of my PLE, I must, at all times, be aware of how my professional philosophy lines up

how I am presenting myself to the online community.

When creating my PLE, I have come to learn is that I should work to my strengths. For

Green and Adorno, it is clear that while forging their online presence, trial and error became a

natural part of the process. When creating an online identity, you must choose which mediums

that you which to utilize while doing so. Your first choice might not always be the best. Both

Miss Adorno and Mr. Green's online presence changed evolved throughout time for distinct

reasons. For Adorno, she wasn't getting the audience she needed to get her message out there.

For Mr. Green, it was a change required for mental health reasons. When crafting an online

presence, we must understand and be willing to change what it looks like if it does not achieve

the goals we have as professionals. A PLE is not a stone tablet but a living and evolving entity

that must be carefully cultivated and crafted.

Conclusion
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In today's ever-growing technological based society, it is almost impossible to forge a

professional identity without cultivating an online identity to complement it. Every job interview,

every class you teach, every interaction you have with coworkers will inevitability lead back to

your online status in some way or another. In a world of uncertainties crafting a stable and

representative online identity is just another way to ensure only a little bit more stability in a

chaotic world. While there might be no perfect formula to do so, looking at the professional

examples of Mr. Green and Miss Adorno would be a great start to have.

References

Adorno, T. (n.d). WHSeagles Instagram account. Retrieved from:

https://www.instagram.com/whseaglesct/
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Adorno, T. (n.d).Wolcott High School Athletics Twitter account @WHSeaglesCT. Retrieved

from: https://twitter.com/WHSeaglesCT

Adorno, T. (n.d). Wolcott High School At-Home Training Google Sites. Retrieved from:

https://sites.google.com/wolcottps.org/wolcottwellnessandathletics/home?authuser=0

Green,J. (n.d) John Green’s website. Retrived from: http://www.johngreenbooks.com/

Green, J. (n.d.) Joohn Green Twitter Account @johngreen. Retrieved from:

https://twitter.com/johngreen

Green, J. (n.d.). John Green Writes Books Instagram Account. Retrieved from:

https://www.instagram.com/johngreenwritesbooks/tagged/?hl=en

Green, J. (n.d.). John Green Facebook Account. Retrieved from:

https://www.facebook.com/JohnGreenfans

Lima, M. R. (2018). Professional Online Presence and Social Media. CSA News, 63(9), 28–29.

doi: 10.2134/csa2018.63.0918

Rowell, C. (2019). Social Media in Higher Education:Case Studies, Reflections and Analysis.

Open Book Publishers.

[VlogBrothers]. (Nov 6th, 2018). Taking a Year off. [Video File] Retreieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zlYoOmoH5U

[VlogBrothers]. (Nov 7th, 2019 ). I Took a year off Social Media. Here’s what happened. [Video

File] Retreieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SERiv_TCg9E

[CrashCourse]. (2013, March 21). The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism:

Crash Course in US History #8 [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://youtu.be/bO7FQsCcbD8
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