Creating a Positive and Safe Digital Footprint

How to stay safe and have a good digital footprint on Snapchat 

Staying safe online is super important and as most people think they’re doing a pretty good job of staying safe they don’t realize that there making mistakes that could potentially set them up for danger. One of the most popular social media apps for teenagers in this generation is an app called Snapchat. Snapchat is an app where you can call your friends, text your friends, play games, send snaps with funny filters, it seems harmless doesn’t it? what some people don’t know is there are options where you can turn on your location and other people can see when you were last active, when you’re active, where you are, what time you were there, etc. You may be thinking, well its okay because I only have my friends on Snapchat and they won’t do anything, well actually there are people out there who could potentially pretend to be someone there not on Snapchat and add you and see where you are. It’s very common. Also, Snapchat has added a feature, which you must pay for, and it’s called Snapchat plus. it’s a cool feature, you pay monthly, and you get all these cool advantages that regular Snapchat users don’t get. You can change your app icon you can see where you are on peoples’ best friends lists, you can even have a badge beside your name, but what you can also do is you can see where people have been all day long (if they have their location on for you). People can use that to their advantage. They can see where you’ve been all day and contract the patterns. They could potentially find out where you work where you live where you go for lunch every day etc. It’s dangerous because people can find the most common places that you go everyday, and it wouldn’t be weird for them to show up since the place is public. This is a very dangerous feature that Snapchat has added, and a lot of people have this, so it’s important to stay safe on Snapchat. Some ways that you can stay safe on Snapchat is most importantly always turn off your location. If you have your mom, dad, and cousin on snap or a very trusted friend, that’s different, but don’t have your location on for everybody you add, you can change in the settings who can see where you are, you can make it so nobody can see your location, everybody can see you’re your location, some people can see your location, etc. What you can also do is ask your friends when you see them in real life if it’s them who added you. A lot of the times on Snapchat, people make fake accounts sing your friends, so you add them and turn on your location for them. So always make sure that you are 100% sure that that is your friend who added you and not some random person who’s impersonating your friend. what you can also do is don’t add people you don’t know. This is super dangerous, and you never know what people’s intentions are so they could be trying to hurt you, take advantage of you etc. Even if you do add random people on Snapchat, it’s not always bad but make sure you don’t turn on your location, you don’t tell them personal information, and never go to meet up with a person you don’t know. Now let’s talk about having a good digital footprint. Even though Snapchat is an app where all your chats delete immediately after the other person reads them, your chats and your photos, will be in the cloud for eternity. If you post something on your Snapchat story that is rude, inappropriate, offensive, and just horrible, it can be brought back up, so make sure that before you post something, it’s something that won’t offend others, and will not get you in trouble if it’s brought back up when you’re older.  A digital footprint is like a regular footprint, every step u take, leaves a trail, and that trail can easily be brought back up. Even if you think something has been deleted, it hasn’t. 

How to stay safe and have a good digital footprint on Instagram 

Another popular social media app that most teens use is Instagram. Instagram is very different than Snapchat. Instagram is more about posting photos, sharing photos with your friends, posting on your story etc. Snapchat is more used for communication; you can also text your friends on Instagram but it is very different and I will tell you why. On Snapchat when you send somebody a photo, a video, a chat etc. If the other person screenshots it, you will be able to see that and call them out for it. That’s why most people on Snapchat don’t screenshot, because if you were to send them something and they screenshot it and you didn’t want them to you would obviously unadd them right? Because its creepy. But if they didn’t screenshot it you would trust them to not save it and then you would keep them on the app, wouldn’t you? That’s why Instagram is very different than Snapchat. On Instagram you cannot see who screenshots anything you share with them anything you post anything use text. So, somebody may lie to you and save something you sent them that you didn’t want them to save, and you would never know because it doesn’t show you. Also, on Snapchat you can see who views your post, and who was the first one to view it, who was the last one to view it etc. On Instagram you don’t know who views your posts, it only shows who likes your posts. There could be random stalkers stalking your page so it’s important that you make your account private, and you only accept people that you know. On Snapchat you can’t have people stalk you, because for them to view what you post on your story, you would have to add them back, so they could not stalk you without them knowing because you would have to add them back. To keep a good digital footprint on Instagram, you need to think before you say, and think before you post. Instagram is different than Snapchat because your chats don’t delete right away, which means if you were to say something offensive to someone on Snapchat you could always delete it or it would disappear before the person could screenshot it, however on Instagram that chat stays there. So you could get caught very easily for saying something that you should not be saying. Also since I stuff stays on there, all of your chats between you and other people could stay there forever. Everything you post all your photos, videos, they stay there forever. So don’t post any inappropriate photos of yourself, or anyone else. Don’t comment offensive things on people’s posts either because everything you say stays there forever, so if you want to have a good future, and get into a good college, you better thin think before you say, and think about what you post. Don’t post about making dumb choices.  

Sites: 

• “14 Tips on How to Protect Your Digital Footprint.” Scramblerz, 8 Dec. 2019, https://scramblerz.com/protect-your-digital-footprint/. 
• Phillips, Gavin. “8 Tips to Keep Your Snapchat Secure.” MUO, 15 May 2017, https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/security-tips-snapchat/. 
• Gralla, Preston. “How to Protect Your Privacy and Stay Secure on Instagram.” The Verge, 26 Mar. 2019, https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282196/how-to-protect-privacy-security-instagram. 

Core Competency Reflection

• Some of my preferred strategies for maintaining a healthy, balanced online presence include, keeping all my accounts private so that I can control who sees my videos and photos and keeping negative comments to my self and only share positive ideas and thoughts.
• I know that my digital footprint can have both positive and negative consequences, including gaining views and saying kind things to help promote a buisness or idea, or saying negative things that affect my career life, so I adjust my actions to not share any negative ideas online and don’t post too often or share my location online to strangers.
• By giving compliments, spreading awareness, inspiring people and making positive changes online, I make a positive difference to my peers.