Who are they now according to Twitter
I’ve been sort of trying, not very well, to use Twitter to promote this blog. Part of that process was finally, after several tweets in which I tagged them (is that the right terminology?), choosing to actually follow Mindy Cohn, Lisa Welchel, and Kim Fields (Nancy McKeon does not appear to be on Twitter, or if she is, a Luddite like me doesn’t know how to find her).
You may already know that when you follow someone, you get suggestions of other people you might want to follow. Such suggestions can be incredibly revealing; presumably the algorithm that makes the suggestions considers such factors as common followers, friends’ choices, who the person you’ve followed follows, and other predictors of whom else you might like if you like this person.
What it ultimately does, though, is basically say who Twitter thinks you are. Every time I follow a new Ireland rugby player on Twitter, Twitter suggests that I like any number of other Irish rugby players. When I followed a friend that I know from a former job, I got a bunch of suggestions related to his current job. All of that makes sense; it’s essentially tracking a person’s current identity.
The suggestions, therefore, that I got when I followed three of our four Eastland heroines were very revealing.
OK, I can work with this. Apparently Patrick Muldoon and Mindy Cohn were in a recent made-for-TV movie together called Holiday Road Trip. It sounds horrible, and it probably is, but it’s got a great cast. Susan Olsen (Cindy from the Brady Bunch) is in it! Cloris Leachman is a no-brainer. She was in the last season (two seasons?) of The Facts of Life; I’d have expected her to be the first suggestion. And Ralph Macchio makes sense. He’s an actor best known for his 80s work, but has certainly had successful roles since then, just like Mindy. These three suggestions imply that Twitter sees Mindy Cohn as an actor. Nothing more, nothing less.
This is kind of sad. All three of these suggestions are Survivor contestants, which, of course, Lisa Welchel was, but I find it unfortunate that Survivor is where her current identity lies. Fortunately I’ve watched every season of Survivor, so I know who all of these people are. Michael Skupin was a repeat player from season 2 in Lisa’s season (season 25), and was her closest ally in the game. She never played with Dawn Meehan, but they tend to both be classified in the popular scuttlebutt as moms who cried too much. (Which, incidentally, pisses me off so so so very much. The online Survivor discussion community really likes to take pot-shots at women – yes, exclusively women – who cry for any reason. As a person who cries when I’m tired, frustrated, angry, stressed, happy, moved, or just about any emotion, I think the judgment of them sucks. I know. Internet community. Deal with it.) Anyway, given that the hoi polloi of the Internet consider them similar, I suppose it’s not surprising that they might share Twitter followers and thus Dawn would come up as a suggestion. Angie Layton was a completely unmemorable contestant on Lisa’s season (I had to Google her to remember who she was), but she’s religious, as is Lisa, so maybe she and Lisa bonded post-show about that.
Sidebar: I only just now realized that I have been spelling Lisa Whelchel’s name wrong MY WHOLE LIFE. There is an ‘h’ after the ‘W.’ I have confirmed this with my DVDs. My mind is blown. I have left all the misspellings intact for archival purposes, but henceforth I will be spelling her name correctly.
Anyway, according to Twitter, Lisa Whelchel is a Survivor contestant, period. Maybe that’s why she did the Hallmark movie. Survivor was fine for getting her back in the public eye, but I’m not sure if that’s solely how she wanted to be categorized.
So, according to Twitter, Kim Fields is a black woman. That was my first reaction when I saw these suggestions. I’d forgotten that Vivica A. Fox was in Living Single with Kim Fields, which was probably Kim’s biggest gig ever, so that makes sense. Vivica A. Fox was also in a documentary with Kim Fields and Lalah Hathaway called My Nappy Roots: A Journey through Black Hair-itage. It sounds interesting and I would totally watch it. IMDB is great for helping to find connections; it was starting to mollify me that maybe Twitter’s suggestion algorithm isn’t just based on “If you like this black woman, you’ll like these black women!” It’s notable, though, that the fact that they were in a documentary about black people’s hair still means that they are associated solely by being black. Finally, we have Tracee Ellis Ross, who, as far as IMDB knows, has no connection to Kim Fields. Google has their names showing up on the same page maybe sometimes, but not associated with each other. So I stand by my initial impression that Twitter identifes Kim Fields primarily as a black woman. Which she is, of course, but I feel like Twitter could have come up with some better, less pigeonholing suggestions, especially based on the fact that I liked all three of them at the same time. Shouldn’t the algorithm have picked up the 80s TV theme?
Sidebar #2: While trying to research a connection between Kim Fields and Tracee Ellis Ross, I found out that Kim Fields had a baby late last year at age 44. Good for her! I mean, the whole procreation thing isn’t really my gig, but if that’s what she wanted, hey, good on her. Also, I’ve found out that her middle name is Victoria. Once again, we’re full circle back to me.
When I started this blog, I hadn’t anticipated the side benefit of getting updated on the actresses portraying the heroines of Eastland School. What a treat this has been. Even if Twitter kind of sucks.
