Online safety is a very important aspect of our lives, especially in today’s technological age. One should be very mindful of what goes on in their online world, as it can affect them deeply with consequences following them throughout their entire life. For instance, our generation has been very fond of social media, and taking photos and videos while posting them have been the latest trends. Yet, if one were to post a photo of themselves on a public account doing something foolish for the thrill of it, that might appear as “funny” or “silly” at that instant, but it definitely won’t appear that way to your manager who is currently debating whether to recruit you or not. For evidence, according to a study by CareerBuilder, 70% of employers say that they screen potential employees on social media and that what they find does have an impact on hiring decisions. As you can see, maintaining a proper, positive social media account will be beneficial in many ways, one being able to have brighter future opportunities, and it will also help with letting your future peers remember you as someone you strive to be, not someone who you impulsively were.
So, in order to maintain a positive digital footprint, a step you can take is to make sure to turn on all of your privacy settings on your social media apps, and to remember this sentence: THINK. Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Lastly, is it kind? These five words may seem a bit silly right now, but if you continue using this tactic, it might be the key to helping you stay safe online and not posting things on impulse. Another unsafe activity that is often done is posting a hateful comment online. Obviously, facing conflict is a natural and common aspect in our lives. However, it is much easier to post something rude when sitting behind a screen rather than saying it to someone’s face, as your identity will remain undisclosed. One must strive to learn to be able to control their strong emotions, and to empathize with one another. A tactic to use for this tempting issue is to remember this test before posting a hateful comment: would you say the same things in front of this person’s face? It may seem okay to you to do that but imagine how impacting it would be on the person viewing that hate comment. It could traumatize them for the rest of their lives. So, in order to continue building towards a safe, comfortable online environment, we must remember to be kind to one another.
Furthermore, one of many simple but major steps you can take to maintain a positive digital footprint is to stick to safer sites. This may be a difficult task for someone that’s younger and lacks experience debating between safe and unsafe sites, so asking a parent or guardian to help guide your site choices would be a better idea. Plus, it is essential to be cautious in protecting your passwords and to avoid selecting simple ones. This is important since if someone were to know your password(s), they are able to fool around with it and post whatever they please, resulting in risk and harm. Additionally, guarding and putting a to limit what one shares online is highly crucial. Posting personal information such as your location, phone number, etc. is something you should never do, because it will lead to a higher risk of identity theft, extortion, or even kidnapping. When in doubt about whether to post something, consulting with a parent or guardian is a smart choice. Lastly, reporting unsafe online behavior is crucial to ensure a positive online space for us all, and assuring to dispose of anything that could be getting in the way of this goal. In conclusion, online activities and social media are becoming and have already become a major part of our lives, and we need to make sure to take high procedures to maintain a safe, welcoming, and positive online environment and to leave a benefiting positive digital footprint for our own personal legacy.
Works Cited
Dignity, Cultures Of. “Tips for Teaching Owning Up Upper Elementary.” Cultures of Dignity, 27 Feb. 2023, https://culturesofdignity.com/blog/student-blog/maintaining-a-positive-digital-footprint.
Online Safety (for Kids) – Nemours KidsHealth. https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/online-id.html. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.
“What Is a Digital Footprint? And How to Protect It from Hackers.” Www.Kaspersky.Com, 8 Sept. 2023, https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-a-digital-footprint.
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/.
Your Digital Footprint May Be Unflattering. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8C1a2z_cuQ. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.
Core Competency Reflection
Some of my preferred strategies for maintaining a healthy, balanced online presence include having strong passwords, limiting my screen time, making sure to never over share online, turning all my privacy settings on for every app I get, and to never comment anything rude or hurtful online. By doing this, I can limit who is able to view me online, how much information online is exposed about me, and it can even increase the chances of my digital footprint staying safe and healthy.
I know that my digital footprint can have both positive and negative consequences, including future employers finding my acts of negatively online, my friends/family finding my past mistakes and judging me in a negative light based off that, and affecting/ruining someone’s opinion or perspective of me. So, I adjust my actions to prevent my future self from getting dragged down by a past mistake that got shed light on, and to stop my friends/ family from feeling disappointed towards me due to a foolish post I decided to make online in the past.
I make digital ethical choices such as ensuring to never post anything harmful or hurtful on other people’s posts online, and by using the THINK (Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind?) strategy to help me through this. I additionally report rude, unnecessary comments to help build towards a more kind, helping online environment. I take these actions in order to help not only others in creating a safer online environment, but also to help guide myself on how I can maintain a healthy, positive digital footprint for my future.