1. How might your digital footprint affect your future opportunities? Give at least two examples.
Your digital footprint may affect your future opportunities if you are not careful about what you post, comment, etc. When in the future, you are looking for a job or if you’re simply applying for college, employers or admissions officers can and will check your social media profiles. They’re on the lookout for any cyberbullying and/or any other inappropriate content. Despite how outstanding you are or how dedicated to your work you are, if they find anything negative, you will most likely be rejected. Another point is your privacy. If your social media profile isn’t private and is instead public, anyone can see your posts. If you post any personal information, other people who aren’t necessarily good can see you, which will put you at a high risk.
2. Describe at least three strategies that you can use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe.
What you can do to try and keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe is to first use privacy settings. Like said before, we don’t want people we don’t know to be scrolling through our account as we don’t know who they are and what intentions they have. If you ever message someone you do not know online, you shouldn’t be telling them all about you. If a stranger asks anything about where you live, your number, or anything similar, you shouldn’t be telling them your information. Similarly, the person you are texting will most likely not tell you their own information. If they do, they may not be who they say they are. You shouldn’t trust everyone and only add people you are familiar with, such as friends, classmates and family members.
You can also think twice before posting by trying to use the T.H.I.N.K method. “Is it true?”, “Is it hurtful?”, “Is it illegal?”, “Is it necessary?”, “Is it kind?” Did you post anything immature or inappropriate? Would you regret sending what you were going to post in your later years? Would you find it embarrassing in the future? Would this effect your future opportunities? Think twice and remember to try and put yourself in others’ shoes.
Another way to keep your digital footprint safe is by having a strong password that isn’t easy to guess and to not share your password with others. If you want to make sure your account won’t be hacked or anything, make sure to have a strong password. You should try to have a mix of letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, symbols and to have a minimum of eight characters in your password. Social media accounts contain lots of your personal information and you don’t want someone who knows your password to go in your account and all 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?
If I could go back in time, three years ago, I would have had made my Instagram account a private and be sure to create a strong password that I know I wouldn’t forget. Thanks to my lack of privacy settings in the past, I still have followers whom I don’t know from before I changed my profile to be private. In addition, before I even adjusted the privacy settings, I had also forgotten my account password and couldn’t log in to change anything.
If I could pass any advice on to other students, I would remind them that whatever they send, will exist in the internet forever. I would also tell them to make sure they keep their profiles private to prevent themselves from being targeted by any online predators.