With just a few clicks, not much information isn’t readily available through the internet. Over the past few days I have spent my time gathering a wealth of information on two of my professors: Mary Abdoney and Elizabeth Teaff. It was quite enlightening exactly how much information about each of them I was able to find, and only in a few short days, I was able to compile a life story and identity for both.
First, lets begin with Professor Abdoney. Aside from knowing that she and her husband both live in Lexington, Virginia, and both work at Washington and Lee University (alluded to in class), I had no other prior knowledge of her life. After my research, if you want to make stalking seem scholarly, I am now able to give a fairly accurate timeline of the life of Mary Abdoney: a girl born on June 16, 1976, in Tampa, Florida. Though I was unable to find any education previous to high school, Mary Abdoney attended H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, Florida, graduating in 1993. She then began he secondary learning at the University of Florida (1993) where she went on the graduate in 1999. Again, in continuing her education in Florida, Mary Abdoney attended the University of Southern Florida where she graduated in 2001. After bumping around a few places Mary made her way to a small town in central Virginia, where she began working as a librarian before being named an associate professor at Washington and Lee University (where she now teaches my DCI Class!). Throughout her time at Washington and Lee, Mary Abdoney made the acquaintance of a man who resided in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Over the next four years, Mary, and her love interest Ned Norland, would alternate driving back and forth between Lexington and Chapel Hill (how romantic… and expensive). This fling eventually culminated in the marriage of Ned Norland and Mary Abdoney on September 29, 2012, where they married in Lexington, Virginia. When researching their marriage, I happened upon a particularly intriguing website: maryandned.com, which I am assuming was their wedding website. This was chalked full of some particularly interesting “fun facts.” Here a few of my favorite: Mary was a very talented ballet dancer, she was a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, and in particular, she knows every clean bathroom along route 220. Through just glossing over Mary Abdoney’s social media I was able to get a fairly solid read on her political stance as well. Mary is a devout feminist, refusing to even take her husbands last name following their marriage, as well, she is a supported of the LGBTQ+. She loves gardening, as reference through her instagram, and her twitter is quite hilarious if I do say so myself. Assuming Mary has her google alerts set up, as referenced in “Your Digital Footprint Matters” by
When it comes to Elizabeth Teaff, I had to put in a little more effort in finding information. Her social media accounts, particularly instagram (she followed me back!) and twitter, were a bit lacking in proper stalk-able content, but her facebook was chalked full of some juicy details. Elizabeth Teaff was born on June 18, 1974 (pretty cool both Mary and Elizabeth have the same birthdays) in Gloversville, New York. Par to course, she then attended Gloversville High School. After high school, Elizabeth bounced around in her collegiate education, beginning at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, moving to the University of New York, then eventually finishing at Virginia Commonwealth University. Elizabeth Teaff first got her foothold in Lexington, Virginia, after taking a job at the Virginia Military Institute. After a short tenure at VMI, Elizabeth made the decision to switch over to the superior college in Lexington, taking a position in the library at Washington and Lee University in 2003. Though it is a bit unclear, I believe she was receiving her graduates degree from the University of South Carolina while working at Washington and Lee, because she obtained her graduates degree in 2006. Since, she has been working in both the library and as a professor at W&L. Again, social media seems to be the best way to get a bearing on someones interests and political standings. Elizabeth seems to cut from the same cloth as Mary Abdoney (thats probably why they co-teach a class together), in that she is also a big proponent of feminism, as well as, a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. One thing I found quite interesting was Elizabeth’s interest in spiders. Her facebook was chalked full of pictures of spiders, though I’m not quite sure what spurred this admiration. Anothering interesting character trait of Elizabeth Teaff is that, through her social media, it is quite evident she enjoys dying her hair and assortment of radiant colors, which is pretty cool. She also is a big supporter of Project Horizon, Inc. which is a nonprofit thats “mission is dedicated to reducing the number of sexual, dating and domestic violence victims through crisis intervention and prevention programs.” Her stated birthday wish last year was for all her followers to go donate to this cause, which I highly encourage. Taking a page from “Social Media’s Not All Bad – It’s Saving Lives in Disaster Zones,” by Tantanasi, Ioanna, and Paul Reilly, Teaff is doing her part to better the Lexington, Virginia community.
In the wake of my stalking escapade, I have decided to start making the conscious decision to watch what I put on social media, because it is not very hard to find out a whole lot of information on someone based on their social media profiles.
