1. How might your digital footprint affect your future opportunities? Give at least two examples.
My digital footprint could prevent me from getting a job. For example, if I apply for a job, and the person interviewing me asks if I have any kind of bad reputation they should know about and I say no, they could just search me up on google and look for anything that says that I have a bad history of keeping jobs or something. Then I wouldn’t get the job, and would probably never get another. Another example could be that maybe I try to run for some high political position like the prime minister, but I posted a lot of racist/generally offensive posts on social media and because of that, nobody thinks that I was a well rounded person..
2. Describe at least three strategies that you can use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe.
You should think before posting something on social media to make sure its not mean in any way. Things like that could be used against you when you try to get a job. Another strategy is to change your privacy settings so that your posts are only visible to friends and people you trust with more personal information. A finale strategy could be to keep all your software up to date. Many virus’s are going to try to “mine” your information, and older virus protection software is more vulnerable to things like that.
3. If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently online? Think of what type of advice you would pass on to your younger self or other students. How could you go about explaining it to them?
I don’t think there’s actually anything I would have done differently because I have always been internet conscious and aware that I should keep personal information private. I think it helps that I never had a social media account before and that I was generally lucky since I barely updated my devices. I would’ve gave myself some advice though. I would have told myself about strategies on how to keep my digital footprint safe because that way, after this whole lesson, I’d have all the ideas cemented in my head for sure. I’d also tell myself to see if they could update the family computer because in the future it becomes basically filled with viruses and ends up extremely slow. Having newly updated antivirus software protects much better as it takes time for a old virus to evolve and attack your computer.