The One With Our Digital Footprints
As I type this blog post, I am adding to my digital footprint. By now, my footprint may fit into a size 22 shoe like Shaq. Growing up with the Internet, I have likely left my mark all over this virtual universe. All of us have. Our digital footprints are trails of data we create when using the Internet, including websites we visit, emails we send, and information we provide to online websites. Our digital footprints builds our reputation online based on the things we do. Unfortunately, with social media, this digital reputation can turn ugly with just one click. While it is much easier to build this digital footprint than erase it, it is important to ensure you are aware of everything you say and do on the Internet, as you never know when it may come back to bite you.
We have all heard stories of athletes, musicians, actors, or celebrities in general who have had their reputation shattered or careers end because of their dark digital footprint. College recruiting coordinators dig deep into the social media profiles of these athletes and things they posted or liked on social media as young teens, years later is ruining their bright future of a college scholarship. Paparazzi and online stalkers will do anything to find a long-lost Tweet or post that can ruin a celebrity but give them their 10 minutes of fame.
Sadly, this is becoming ever too common as the age of technology grows. The more social networks there are, the more opportunities for the younger generations to add to this footprint. At a young age, sometimes you don't realize how harmful your words and actions, especially online can be. Parents try to tell their children, and teachers tell their students, but most of them don't want to believe it. They feel you can just delete the post later and it will go away but thats not always the case. Anything typed into a keyboard or uploaded onto a site can come back to haunt you years later.
We have all heard stories of athletes, musicians, actors, or celebrities in general who have had their reputation shattered or careers end because of their dark digital footprint. College recruiting coordinators dig deep into the social media profiles of these athletes and things they posted or liked on social media as young teens, years later is ruining their bright future of a college scholarship. Paparazzi and online stalkers will do anything to find a long-lost Tweet or post that can ruin a celebrity but give them their 10 minutes of fame.
Sadly, this is becoming ever too common as the age of technology grows. The more social networks there are, the more opportunities for the younger generations to add to this footprint. At a young age, sometimes you don't realize how harmful your words and actions, especially online can be. Parents try to tell their children, and teachers tell their students, but most of them don't want to believe it. They feel you can just delete the post later and it will go away but thats not always the case. Anything typed into a keyboard or uploaded onto a site can come back to haunt you years later.
I am a big advocate for technology and think its changing the world for the better. I am especially big on using it in the classroom as the students can relate and interact with their education, which is a huge plus. I also understand the important of a clean digital footprint and ensure I am very cautious of what I post online, but not everyone is like that, especially kids.
So how do we integrate technology into our classrooms and encourage students, and young people in general, to use these social network sites, but ensure their safety? Is social media and other education technology sites really good tools to use in the classroom if what is posted lasts, potentially, forever?
One of my regular firefighting sites (Statter.com) has his own term he uses to post about "Career Suicide by Social Media." Your post explains why I have chosen to blog anonymously. If someone looked carefully at all my postings, compared them to my Facebook, Canvas, and LinkedIn, they might be able to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteYes I am very concerned about educating people about their digital footprint. There are a number of times I have reminded people about their own security, such as the pastor who posted a picture of his new concealed carry license with the address.
I appreciate this post nolefan! I think about these things myself, and sometimes use the examples of those young people whose lives were disrupted by the harmful things they've posted. I tell them straight up, this is an uncomfortable conversation we are having, but I'm tell you this now because I care about you and don't want to see your lives ruined. It's one thing to see a celebrity receive redemption, but most of my students don't have that kind of social capital and networking teams to bounce back from a cringey viral moment. There seems to be an upsurge now that we are in the midst of a pandemic.
ReplyDeleteWhile it can be argued that these posts and pictures wouldn't exist if young people had the cultural and historical context to keep them from doing so, I find it hard to believe that my students aren't telling me the truth when they say they've never learned about this event or that topic while in high school. I believe many instructors have made digital footprints here and there, mostly under the guise of their personal identities, but professionally it's too much of a risk to actually have the important lessons regarding the histories that shape us as humans.