My Digital Footprint

Attached is my infographic, but I have my full answers here.

Link: Digital Footprint

Google Yourself

I have a pretty common name, Sophie. So, when I searched up my name many different people’s profile shows up. Also, there seems to an Australian film actress with the same name, so profiles and information about her show up. Some Instagram profiles with a large following show up, such as a tattoo artist and an influencer. I personally don’t upload pictures to social media and I don’t necessarily have a huge presence. My name doesn’t reveal anything about me on a simple Google search.

 

How may your digital footprint affect your personal brand and future opportunities for post-secondary? How might it affect your job prospects? Why is it important to be aware of one’s digital footprint?

Your digital footprint is permanent and remains on the internet forever. This means that something inappropriate you posted in a baddie phase when you were fourteen may come to haunt you in the future. For example, when you’re trying to apply for post-secondary or trying to get a new job. People look at your social media presence when looking for who to hire or who to accept into their university. Say you posted a racist comment when you were fifteen and twenty five years later, you apply to be a social worker. This employer would not hire someone who has this kind of past and look at someone else. Or if you posted a picture of yourself doing illegal acts and later apply to be a police officer, for example, this wouldn’t look good on you. Even your search history or previous YouTube subscriptions can remain on the internet. Starting from an early age, you must understand the impacts of your digital presence. To make sure that your reckless old self won’t damage your future, your digital footprint must be safe. In conclusion, it is extremely important to keep your digital footprint safe to secure your future.

 

Describe at least three strategies you can use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe. Explain why each strategy is important or valuable. Explain how you would implement the strategy.

  1. Check privacy settings, but be wary of them
    1. Privacy settings on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (social media) allow you to control some settings on your social media profile. For example, Facebook allows you to limit posts to only your friends on Facebook. Or, Instagram has a private account setting where your posts won’t be visible to the public that doesn’t follow you. People rely too much on these private settings that no one would be able to see your post. However this is not true. Anyone with the intent of getting into your account can. Still, it is a good idea to change and set private settings to make your information and profile less visible to the general public.
  1. Manage accounts and how you sign up for them.
    1. Everyone probably has signed up for different websites, for different uses. For example, I have an account for all these websites I don’t even use anymore. Furthermore, I have used my personal information like my name, age, and email address. To keep your digital footprint a lot more clean and safe, it would be a good idea to check your accounts on websites and get rid of the ones you don’t need. It is also beneficial to go through mailing subscriptions. When you are signing up, you can keep your personal information safe and not revealed to the internet. Also, using different secure passwords for accounts can drastically help. Using the same passwords makes it easier for people to get into your accounts, but also to make sure to use secure passwords that aren’t easy to guess. While signing up, you can use a different email or a temporary one, not use your real name, or not input your age or country.
  2. Clear your cookies, cache, and history
    1. A cache is something your computer uses to make usage easier. A frequent page your computer visits a page often, the computer saves them to your drive. Cookies are information you have selected on a site. If you log into your email your computer can remember your username and password and store it in the hard drive. Checking browser settings can be used to maintain this. You can set it to only receive cookies from the site that you are on. However, cookies are beneficial to our convenience, however other websites may insert cookies onto your computer, which could make them steal information and access accounts. Clearing cookies and cache regularly is a good habit. Clearing can be beneficial to privacy. History also should be cleared to make it difficult for websites to track you. To clear your cookies, cache, and history on a specific browser, such as Chrome, you may go into the “more” button and find “clear,” where it gives the option to clear data, cookies, and cache.

 

What is digital permanence? How would you explain the idea of “digital permanence?”

  1. Digital permanence is like the history and the idea that once something is posted on the internet, it cannot be deleted, even if you tried to delete it. To explain it in an easier way, it would mean that once something is posted, it will remain on the internet forever.

Conclusion:

I learned from this assignment how important it is to keep your digital footprint safe. Your digital footprint stays permanent, so you must be careful. I would tell other students to make sure to not post inappropriate or reckless things on the internet, because it lasts forever.

 

 

Links:

12 Tips For Students To Manage Their Digital Footprints

https://prezi.com/stseouv2-sdi/digital-permanence/

https://itstillworks.com/okay-delete-cookies-5106786.html

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2143846/leave-no-trace-tips-to-cover-your-digital-footprint-and-reclaim-your-privacy.html

https://blogs.tcsusa.com/worried-about-digital-privacy-and-online-reputation-tips-for-reducing-digital-footprint

https://www.domain.com.au/news/celebrity-beach-suburb-battle-sophie-lee-versus-fashion-retailer-robby-ingham-selling-beachside-homes-20160423-goctfj/

https://dribbble.com/shots/6768535-Stay-Safe

My Favourite Video

This video is one of my favourites because it addresses an everyday thing humorously while still having an impact on the viewers. Everyone is a procrastinator, as mentioned in the video. Whether it be an assignment or something big in life, we all push things back. This video comically addresses procrastination, using characters such as the “instant gratification monkey”, “rational decision-maker”, and the “panic monster” that is in everyone’s brain. Tim Urban, the speaker, goes on to talk about a life calendar that displays each week of a 90 year old person as a box and says that there are not many of these boxes. He finishes by telling the audience that we all need to find out what we’re procrastinating on in life, that we need to stay aware of the “instant gratification monkey” to focus on what’s important. As students, I’m sure we can all relate to this and set our priorities to be more efficient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU

My Favourite Picture

This picture is one of my favourite photos because it has many of my favourite things and memories in one picture. I love travelling and exploring the world. I also love beautiful colours and the beautiful sunset with warm tones in it makes it one of my favourite pictures. I took this picture in a plane going from London to Stockholm and this trip included destinations that I really wanted to visit, for example Paris. It makes it more special because of these memories but it is also visually aesthetic.

 

My Favourite Quote

Breathe. It’s just a bad day, not a bad life.

Everyone, at some point in their life goes through a bad day. Different things affect different people in different ways. However, we allow this negatively to get inside us and often think the worst of it. A bad day or bad days doesn’t mean the rest are going to be bad. We make decisions based on our short term feelings, especially when we feel down. This quote helps us to understand that we must overcome the challenge of each day, because not all days will be the same.