My Digital Footprint
I completed various searches to ensure that I was seeing my full footprint. I used all names possible for myself. I also tried Google, Yahoo, and Bing. I found only six results, and all six of those results were positive. One of my results was a news article from my high school graduation declaring that I was salutatorian of my class and planning to attend Penn State University, and it also included photographs of me giving my speech at graduation (Express Times Staff, 2011). Other than that, my only other results led me to my school district’s website where I am listed as a teacher, my ePortfolio, and a few projects on Piktochart.
Although I have profiles across the Internet on various platforms, I was not surprised to see so few public results. When I search my maiden name, my results have always led to former celebrity couple Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller. A search for my married name led to my professional profiles, as I anticipated because I do not use my first and last name online unless I am in a professional setting. The only upsetting thing I found, albeit not surprising, was that other people with a combination of my names don’t have the most positive digital footprints, and they could be mistaken for me. I know my digital footprint is clean, but other profiles for my name that I found were inappropriate. This is frustrating as I try to represent myself well, but other profiles could be mistaken for mine and ruin my reputation.
My list of social media profiles includes Facebook, Instagram (2 accounts), Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Messenger, and Bitmoji. On my social accounts, I do not use my real name. I had it ingrained in me that as a teacher I did not want to be found, so all of my profiles are versions of my name like first name and middle name or a shortened version of my name to show that it is me, but I cannot easily be searched. I then also have other online accounts like Target, Amazon, Ebay, etc. for shopping. Other digital profiles that I have include Google, online banking, and medical record accounts. I am dependent on technology when it comes to socializing, shopping, and keeping up with my financials and health, so basically my entire life.
I am proud of my digital footprint and would be happy to have my employer or grandmother view it. In fact, I am Facebook friends with some of my administrators as well as my grandfather. I ensure that everything I post online is appropriate and positive. With that being said, I still only give myself a score of 3, proficient, for my digital footprint. The only parts that concern me in the least would be vacation photos (beachwear), a few kissing photos (my wedding), and weird Facebook pages that everybody “liked” in high school. Over the years I have cleaned up questionable Facebook statuses from my teen years, but these pages seem to have disappeared and are therefore impossible to “unlike.”
Maintaining a positive digital footprint is no easy task, especially since social media started to boom during my teenage years. It is important to keep it as positive as possible because you never know who is watching.
References
Express Times Staff. (2011, June 9). Nazareth Area High School salutes class of 2011 at
graduation. Express Times. Retrieved from https://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth
/index.ssf/2011/06/nazareth_area_high_school_salu.html
