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Your Digital footprint is a trace of data that can show your own personal activities and whatever you do online. It is left there forever but can either benefit or ruin you in a way. (Ex. Texts, posting videos or photos of yourself, Buying something online… These things can be on there forever, so be mindful of what you put on the internet about yourselves and others.)  

Internet Safety is an especially important aspect of keeping a clean, safe, and secure digital footprint. The internet can benefit you in many ways (ex. Entertainment, online business, and shopping, searching for information, etc..) but it can also be extremely unsafe, and you could be exploited to hackers, stalkers, and weirdos (pedophiles…). Your future employers often look up things about you and find personal things that may be able to taint your reputation. It is important to be cautious and observant when posting things or sending messages, photos, snaps, etc. To your friends, family, anyone around you. 

Some examples of Unsafe Activities that can potentially harm you and your future… 

• Public social media accounts (Anyone can see what you post. (Your boss, friends, family, strangers, stalkers, kidnappers, etc.) 
• Posting photos of yourself on social media (Again, anyone can see you) 
• Putting your home address, school, age, grade in your profiles for apps. 
• Clicking on random links (can be nudity, gore, inappropriate photos/videos, etc.) 
• Telling people passwords to your social media accounts, phone, anything that has private info about you. 

All these can be a risk to getting your address, location, school, age, passwords, leaked. 

To be safe and prevent getting attacked/exploited by stalkers, pedophiles, hackers, or to not be at risk of being exposed to something you did not want to be revealed, here are some things you can do: 

• Delete apps or reduce the amount of activity on some of them. 
• Make sure to use different passwords for every account you make because it will make It difficult for hackers to hack into all your social media accounts. 
• Do not save or send photos that can be controversial or photos of other people. (It will only make it worse for when/if you were to be involved in some kind of rumor or controversy. People can make up things about you, so it is not good to have enemies or bad relationships with others over something that is personal about other people (nude photos, text messages, etc.) 
• Change your privacy settings (To friends only) and/or private your account(s). 
• NEVER click on any suspicious websites or links 
• Do not share your location with anyone unless it is your family or closest friends. 
• Try not to make online friends (They may not be who they say they are) 

Personal/Social Competency Reflection 

I know that my digital footprint can have both positive and negative consequences, including my private life being leaked/open to the world, so I like to adjust my private settings so that the only people that can see what I post are the people that I trust the most.  

My online support network (ex. Teachers’ TEAMS pages, Tech Leadership Edublog, Career Centre website, Library website, Centennial school website, etc.) are helpful to me because they make it easy for me to ask questions. I find this very helpful to me because I often get distracted or just don’t know what to do so having a place where I can ask questions online, not face to face in real life, makes it easier for me as I am not very good at communicating with others. 

Some of my preferred strategies for maintaining a healthy, balanced online presence include… Limiting my screen time and staying away from controversial topics online. I think that since I have been spending less time on my phone and from social media, my stress has reduced. I feel like my head is clear and I do not have the urge to look at my phone for notifications (Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram.. Ect.) as much anymore. 

Works Cited: 

“How To Protect Your Digital Footprint.” Morgan Stanley, https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/digital-footprint-protection-strategies. Accessed 28 Sept. 2022. 

Hickey, Chelsea. “Teenagers: Why You Should Care About Your Digital Footprint.” Social Media Club, 22 May 2013, https://socialmediaclub.org/blog/from-the-clubhouse/teenagers-why-you-should-care-about-your-digital-footprint/.

#DigitalFootprint #PersonalSocialCC

By, Amina Amani