I Don’t Even Post: Data Visualization and My Facebook

So I want to start this by saying I don’t post things to Facebook in general. For the most part, my photos are things I have been tagged in, but they still say a lot about me.

Scrolling through my photos a few things jump out at me- I spend a lot of time with my family, I travel to other countries, I spend time at various races, I frequent the beach, and I go to State.

To be honest, those statements are only partially true- I do spend time with my family, but I only see the extended family a few times a year. The reason we have so many photos of us together is because at least four of us have cameras and we take a butt-load of pictures whenever we gather. This ties into the beach statement as well- I go to the beach about once a year, and typically with my dad’s side of the family. Because that is the side that takes an excessive amount of pictures, I’m tagged in numerous photos of us on the beach or in the pool. Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of the beach- one visit a year is really all I need. Like Anakin Skywalker, I’m not a huge fan of sand (it really does get everywhere and it’s really uncomfortable).

Because my sister, father, and I do 5ks (they also do half-marathons, marathons, and 10ks but I’m not a fan of running so I just walk the 5ks), I have a number of photos of us at races either as participants or taking pictures of other people’s costumes. Another thing that runs (heh) in our family is our college- both my parents and my sister attended State. I even have a picture of my sister and myself as children dressed as State cheerleaders for Halloween. There’s pictures of me with the mascot and at my sister’s graduation, clearly marking which college I attend.

Related to the college but only tangentially are the travel pictures I have- I have been to two different countries for study abroad and one country as a travel thing with a friend before study abroad. I have a ton of pictures from both studies abroad, and they show me doing things like going to the beach (sounds familiar right?), hanging out at a waterfall, eating (I have so many pictures of me eating both abroad and at home- it’s a good bonding activity), rowing a boat down a river, and visiting churches/temples. From those pictures, it would seem that I enjoy the outdoors (which I do), eating (I obviously like that), and going to religious places (I’m not really religious but ancient temples and old churches have some amazing architecture). Also the combination of beach pictures domestically and abroad would suggest that not only do I like the ocean, I also like driving boats (I do that at my family’s beach week and I did that in England). Again, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of beaches- I like them fine, but they have their drawbacks.

I would say that the advertising I would get would probably relate to those few traits shown on my photos, though they may be inaccurate. I do like waterfalls, and I prefer the forest over the beach, but it’s hard to tell from the few pictures I have been tagged in.