My Digital Footprint:

After Googling myself, I’ve seen no pictures of me or any of my social media profiles. Many of the sites and images were of Chinese men or women who weren’t near my age and looked totally different from how. Finding my footprint would be difficult as all of my social media accounts don’t have a picture of my face or my real name.

How it might affect you:

Your digital footprint may affect your future job opportunities, university friendships, friendships, and relationships. Posting racist and sexist images or sentences/paragraphs are considered inappropriate and unacceptable by many people, especially your future employer. Friends can post pictures of things you have done while drunk at parties or any other embarrassing moments that you don’t want strangers to see.

To elaborate more on why your digital footprint can affect career opportunities and chances to get into prestigious universities, employers and university registrars and/or administrators will often Google your name to look for your social media posts. Background data and posts online reveal pieces of personality. This is important to all prestigious universities and professional career employers as they want people who have a good background and are competent. They want qualified and skilled individuals, not people who do things poorly.

Furthermore, the comments from your posts can affect you emotionally. They can lower your self esteem and eventually cause depression. Depression normally results in putting less effort into things that are important; your career and basically your life in general. Some side effects of having depression would be loss of appetite, feeling sad or empty, feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, lack of sleep, and so on. These side effects affect your health and future opportunities.

Strategies:

When I create social media accounts, I normally don’t like to post selfies or use my real name. In my opinion, it’s one of the best ways to help keep you safe in an online world. Sending selfies and posting negative, inappropriate posts can lead you to criminals and strangers putting you in a dangerous situation. Many people would say that “it’s just the internet” but they’re always certain people who have strong opinions about what people post who would go as far as committing crimes.

Another strategy would be posting appropriate photos and comments on your social media (if you prefer to use your real name and post images of yourself). Don’t post negative tweets and keep judgmental messages to yourself. Create a positive online profile that you want professors, employers, and university registrars to see.

Be smart. Don’t post negative images or comments on your social media. Think of what others may say or do once you’ve posted that image or comment. Check the privacy policy as well. Some social media companies do expose some of your personal information to third party companies. Keep in mind of what the companies have said in their privacy policies and make sure the things you post are appropriate and safe.

Information I learned:

Some information that I would pass on is to always try to stay safe and post appropriate photos/comments online. The online world can be a dangerous place and it’s important to keep your personal information to yourself.

If I ever see anyone online considering or putting themselves in a potentially dangerous situation, I will ensure that they’re safe and that information or post/comment won’t be spread everywhere. I will try my best at doing this through persuasion as there aren’t many choices I can pick from through a screen.

 

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