Digital Journal 2: Reality is often disappointing
Reading Charlie Warzel’s article, I contemplated what would happen if I was a victim of laser phishing -- as in someone is trying to impersonate me.
Firstly, why would anyone want to steal my identity? To describe it generously, my clout is limited (online and off). The circumference of my social circle is in the single-digits, and I don’t get massive amounts of engagement like a local, B-list celebrity might. But I have also seen random older family members be the victims of Facebook hackings, so maybe these hackers are desperate for anyone.
I don’t often post original content, so the AI’s data pool is limited. Even if it tried to aggregate data from multiple social media profiles, the voice I use on Twitter is different from the voice I use on Facebook is different from the voice I use on Reddit. So how realistic could it possibly be?
And yet, I can’t be too quick to dismiss it. In stark contrast to when I was a child and my parents told me to never post any personal identifying information, now I treat Twitter like my personal journal sometimes. It has my name and my Facebook and Instagram are linked to it. IF someone was interested, they could probably impersonate me pretty well. But would they be disappointed in what is created?
This question reminds me of S2E1 of Black Mirror, “Be Right Back.” In it, Ovadya’s description of “Human Puppets” is depicted when a young widow orders an android replica of her recently deceased husband. The body is easy enough to replicate, but the mind? That’s lifted from his texts, email, and social media accounts. But it isn’t enough for the widow, who slowly goes mad realizing that while someone -- something -- can look and sound like her deceased, one’s core character simply cannot be lifted from Facebook.
I think about this because my own mother died in 2015. How many times have I thought, “What would she say? What would she do?” How many times have I looked at our messages and her Facebook profile, yearning for any small piece of her that’s left? Yet I think given the choice, I would not choose for her to be laser phished because the reality would be disappointing. It is not the same as her. It never would be or could be.
This thought exercise has greatly helped me establish boundaries with my presence on the internet. My social media a vanishingly small representation of me. It cannot capture everything, and I don’t think I want it to. I chose what I post so the “best” of me, both my character and my body, is portrayed. I don’t think we, as a society, could handle that level of intimacy from everyone in our follow lists.
