made by Matthew R.
What is a digital footprint?
A digital footprint is a recordable trace of what you do or post online. It is anything that is publicly viewable online that can identify you. Literally anything online with your name on it. For example, the photos that you post on social media, and public accounts for various websites with your name on them, can be found online. So, try googling yourself to see what comes up. Anything that you see can be seen by other people.
How to have a positive digital footprint?
In this modern world, having a positive digital footprint matters more than ever. One reason is that when applying for a job, your employers will do a comprehensive search on your digital footprint. If they can find anything bad on you, then it can greatly hinder your chances of getting a job. Other institutions and clubs can also be affected by your online presence. So, here are some ways to maintain a positive digital footprint.
– Check your privacy settings.
Luckily for us, many social media applications have a wide variety of privacy features that can help you clean up or keep your digital footprint nice and clean. If their provided settings are not enough then you can just outright delete posts that you are unhappy with. Another thing that you could change in the settings is your username to something different than your real name so your posts don’t show up when you search for your name.
– Think about what you post
You may need a place to vent your emotions about school, but social media is not the place to do it. The reason is that everything you post is permanent, and can come up again to haunt you. Well not literally, of course, but potential employers can use your hastily written comments to judge your character. A good general guideline is to ask yourself if your grandparents would like what you post. Another thing that you should keep in mind before you hit post is to not overshare. It should be generally easy, make sure that you don’t post usernames, passwords, real names, and other private identifying information.
– Delete unused accounts
My final tip towards maintaining a positive digital footprint is to delete old unused accounts. More social media platforms than you think become out of date, one famous example is Myspace. If your posts on the outdated platform that you used to use show you have a good personality or are positive, you could consider keeping them. It’s can be better to have a positive footprint than none at all.
Personal/Social Competency Reflection
In this ADL project, I researched and used critical thinking to create an article about how to maintain a positive digital footprint online. I know that my digital footprint can have both positive and negative consequences, including being able to be judged by it in the future, so I adjusted my actions to make sure that I refrain from posting to public social platforms. If I do want to share something with my friends, I do it with direct messages. Some of my preferred strategies for maintaining a healthy, balanced online presence are to make sure that what I do end up posting is thoughtful, and always checking the privacy settings before making a new account. My article also highlights other ways that I keep my digital footprint positive. Some of the ways I work to build and maintain online relationships are direct messaging my friends when I have something interesting to talk about, but not enough to annoy them with too many texts. While writing this article, I learned new skills to maintain a positive digital footprint and honed ones that I already knew.
Sites I used for research (not limited to but including):
https://myfuture.edu.au/career-articles/details/building-a-positive-digital-footprint
https://parentinfo.org/article/having-a-positive-digital-footprint
*Used Word online to make this article