My Digital Footprint
When reflecting upon my digital footprint I really had to take a look at what exactly my digital identity is. What kind of person do I percieve myself as online? As an experiment I decided to google my own name and see what sorts of things people have access to. It was shocking to see how much information is actually on the internet about my past experiences and current experiences. Some of the information I had put online myself, but there were many volleyball articles and write ups I was not even aware existed. Upon researching my own name I began to wonder if I am any different online then I am in real life. In real life I am a pretty social and expressive person. Am I like that online? I find I am actually a little bit less expressive online then I am in real life. Would I rather type out my feelings or say them to your face? The answer is easy, personal face-to-face conversation is a way better method for me. I was never one to post statuses on facebook and it wasn't until twitter that I truly began to express feelings, show quotes of interests. Interestingly enough, when looking at my digital identity I do have A LOT of pictures. Perhaps not so many words of expression but I do have over 1,000 tagged photos, some of which need to be erased from the internet. Harsh realization: once this pictures are online such a task is not so easy. As a teacher we really need to teach our students about how easy it is to access information, whether its true information or false. Having a "What is your Digital Identity" class or unit for that matter would be a great start. What age? Well, students as young as grade 4 are starting to use Facebook etc. SO YOUNG!
After reading your article I also googled myself online and was surprised by how much of my past popped up! A very scary amount of information and pictures, nothing that should be hidden, but a lot of info. Which made me think about the current trend right now to neknominate online drinking game which is spreading like wildfire right now. There have been at least 4 deaths related to this game yet it is still going on. There is no doubt in my mind that those who post this are going to have a negative digital image. I think that this goes back to educating students like you said about digital identity.
ReplyDeleteGreat point Jaynell! I was recently nominated for this game and neglected to complete it due to the negative effects it could have on my future career. I, like you see how this could ruin my digital identity. I think that students need to be aware of the negative effect of things like this.
ReplyDelete