Whats your digital identity?

Hello readers, 

     Take a moment and think of your personal footprint / indentity you contribute to the digital world? Really think about it, does your impression have a positive effect? In what ways are you connected? How does my digital identity promote who I am as an individual?  These are all questions I asked myself and thought about. These questions are important for individuals to ponder and reflect upon to gain an understanding of were they stand within the digital world.

      I am typically involved with the digital world every day wether that be the use of Social media, Text, Phonecalls, Email, Google, Neflix, or Youtube. This day and age it's near impossible to not have some connection to the digital world. I am very connected to others, as i'm very active online networking and communicating with others. So I wondered what would someone find if they simply Googled my own name? I challege you to do just this and reflect on what you find. I didn't know what to expect, but the image below shows what I found.

Screen Shot from a personal Google seach

      What I found was links to my different Twitter profiles throughout the years, Profiles to different databases, and images from different social media accounts and news articles from my years playing football and different sports. This screenshot does not show the further pages that come up as I searched more and more it goes over different articles, and databases my name is linked to as well as different social media posts I have made throughout the years. I was surprised to some of the information that came up and how easy it was for someone  to build a idea of who I am without even knowing myself in person.  After analizing my self Google seach I noticed I have left a good footprint online as nothing comes up with this search that is bad, offending, inappropriate etc.... As a professional it is important to act and be veiwed as a professional in all aspects of who you are. One simple post or comment, one inappropriate photo, or bad news article could be stuck to your name online forever. Future employers, public members and others could simply google up your name to see who you are, so what "Identity" or footprint do you want to leave for them to find? 
      
     How can we protect ourself online to filter what is out there to see? Not all individuals share the same opinions or views. Throughout our life we have many different relationships with different dynamics of what is appropriate information to share. For example, within our life we have professional relaitonships, family relationships, freindship relationships, public relaitonships, Ect...... Adding filters such as privite accounts or having different social media accounts that are seperate from public veiwing to only family to see. These are all different ways that we are able to protect ourselves for who is able to see our shared online content. As for what is shared is up to you! The general rule is to think would your boss approve of your content before posting. 

     As the world becomes more and more technologically dependent through the way we communicate Is educating students on thier digital identity / footprint the right thing to do? I believe it is very important. Educating and giving the students the tools to be positive memebers of the digital community as well as informing the implicaitons that could occur based off of what we post and the ways that we can stay protected while being apart of the digital community. This whole idea would fit perfect into health studies or P.E. during a healthy lifestyle unit. Having students Google themself and practice the same activity of reflecting on what they find. Having students understand what implications come with careless activity and how it can stick with them as whatever goes online is hard to retract back is very important. Giving them opportunity to reflect on their own footprint and what steps they can take maintain or change it into a positive safe use within the digital community. 

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on this topic, if you have any ideas, comments or thoughts please share in the comments, or lets start a conversation on Twitter. 


- BK