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3.3.7 Practice: Can You Know Me by What I Buy?

Practice Guide

Media Literacy (S2318458)

Date: ____________

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In this assignment, you’ll create two identity sketches — either in written or multimedia form — one showing yourself as seen through your activities and other components of your week and the other portraying your consumer self from the week (as companies see you). You’ll also write one to two paragraphs comparing these two identities and reflecting on what you may have discovered through the process.

Make sure to address the following questions:

What activities, hobbies, interests, and interactions have you been involved in during the last week that might give someone clues about who you are?
What are some of your purchases and media-related activities from this last week that might give a corporation clues about your “consumer identity”?
In what ways are these two views of you similar?
In what ways are these two views of you different?
What is your reaction to any similarities or differences that you discovered?

Step 1: Understand the Assignment

Rewrite the assignment in your own words. Underline any important words that help you focus on the task.

Step 2: Identity Sketch from Your Weekly Activities

The first step is to think over your last week and brainstorm all of your activities and other details about your daily and weekly life that might give someone clues about who you are. Here are some ideas for what you might include:
- Going to school, working a job, taking part in community activities or groups
- Favorite hobbies
- Creative pursuits
- Entertainment/Leisure activities
- Activities with friends
- Activities with family
- Types of transportation you took
- Special or meaningful places you visited or are part of your weekly life
- The most exciting or unusual event from your week (Did you do something new? Hear a great song? See something amazing?)
- Other details you want to include from your past week that could help give a fuller picture of what your life is like

Brainstorm Space

Next, decide which details you want to include in your final sketch. Try to include at least 10 details about your week in your final piece. Circle or highlight the details above that you’re most excited to include, or write them down in the space below, along with any new details or ideas that come to you.
Now decide what form you want your final piece to take. Use the space below if you want to write your sketch in paragraph form. (Make sure to write at least one to two paragraphs for this sketch, and include plenty of details to give a fuller picture of who you are as revealed from your weekly activity.) If you want to draw a sketch or diagram of yourself and label your details (or if you choose a different form of multimedia presentation), use a separate sheet of paper. (Make sure to label the details of your piece clearly and to provide any additional information that will help your viewer understand you and your week.)

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Step 3: Consumer Identity Sketch

Now make another sketch that reveals how a company might perceive you as a customer or potential customer. Begin by brainstorming all the things you’ve purchased in the last week, from everyday items to anything special, both online and in the real world. Here are some possibilities:

Supplies for school or work
Food and snacks
Books, newspapers, magazines
Movies, concerts, shows
Clothing and accessories
Music or ringtones
Technology or appliances
Gifts
Items needed for hobbies or creative pursuits
Gas, public transportation tokens, cards, or passes
Services

Brainstorm Space

Some online companies have the ability to gain information about you from your online activities, such as through searches using a search engine, from anything you click to go to a new website (such as through a banner or margin ad or advertising link on a page), and information you have in your social media profiles (such as listed interests, location, school, age, etc.)

Brainstorm what you did online this last week. Next to each one, try to jot down notes about what a company might guess about you (and more specifically, what you might be interested in buying) based on this info. Here are some possibilities for what you might include:

Did you make any online searches using a search engine? List everything you can remember looking up. (Include locations, answers, people, bands, specific websites, topics, etc.)
Did you use any social media this week? Did you notice any particular ads in the margins or on the banner — and if so, what were they? What details do you include in your profile? How might those be useful clues from the perspective of a company?
Were you tempted to click on any advertising (such as a banner ad, suggested ad on the edge of a website page, or an advertisement link)? If so, what did you click on?
Did you browse any online stores or websites selling goods, even if you didn’t actually buy anything? What items did you look at?

Brainstorm Space

Next, decide which details you want to include in your final sketch. Try to include at least 10 details about your actual purchases and online activity that a company might find useful. Circle or highlight the details from both of the brainstorm spaces above that you’re most excited to include, or write those ideas down in the space below, along with any new details or ideas that come to you.

Now create your second identity sketch. Use the space below if you want to write your sketch in paragraph form. (Make sure to write at least one to two paragraphs for this sketch, and include plenty of details to give a fuller picture of your consumer identity and how companies might see you based on your week.) If you want to draw a sketch or diagram of yourself and label your details (or if you choose a different form of multimedia presentation), use a separate sheet of paper. (Make sure to label the details of your piece clearly and to provide any additional information that will help your viewer understand your consumer identity as a company might perceive you.)

__________________________________________________________________________

Step 4: Analysis: Compare, Contrast, and Reflect

Take a look back at both of your sketches. Compare them: What similar details or related information do they contain? Contrast them: What unique details, information, or perspective do they each contain? And then reflect on any discoveries you made in the process. If you’re not sure where to start for the third column, consider answering one or more of the following questions:

Did you have a strong reaction to either sketch? Is that reaction the same for both, or different? Why do you think that is?
What do you think the answer is to the question, “Can you know me by what I buy?”
Do some of the things you buy help you express or create some of your larger identity? Does that relate at all to how similar or dissimilar your two sketches were?
Are there parts of your identity that you would want to hide or protect from the corporate view? Why or why not?

Use this space to jot down notes to compare, contrast, and reflect on these sketches.

Compare: What similar information or details do both sketches contain?	Contrast: What’s unique or different in each sketch?	Reflections, Reactions, Insights, Discoveries

Now write at least one to two paragraphs that pull your ideas together from the brainstorm above into an analysis of your two sketches. Be sure to discuss both what is similar and what is different in your two sketches, and to include anything surprising or interesting you learned in the process.

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Step 5: Read Back and Revise

When you’re done writing and creating, read back through your work and make sure it reads smoothly, is written in complete sentences, contains everything you meant to include (especially details and examples), and that any spelling or grammar errors are fixed. Good work!

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