My Digital Identity
To me, having a digital identity means having some sort of presence online. In general, I think there are two different components to identity: how you identify yourself and how others identify you. I believe that digital identity is special because it doesn’t matter how you identify yourself on the internet, it only matters how others see you. Because of that, you have to put yourself in the identifiers’ shoes when participating in the digital world. Who the identifier is is completely up to you, but these articles suggest that you should think of these identifiers as your future employers, because statistically they are.
I was surprised to find that there were programs out there that could wipe clean your digital presence and how much money it costs, but I think I was more surprised that I was surprised. OF COURSE there are companies who figured out a way to remove people’s scandals from the internet. (Since there is an annual fee, does that mean that your scandalous video of you that someone leaked ever truly gone? Just a thought…)
One of the rules for my leadership position on campus is that we aren’t allowed to add our students on social media until the end of that academic year so that we may maintain professional boundaries. As an adult hoping to enter the workforce (me being a student leader being besides the point) it’s important to be extremely aware and conscious of what I post on the internet and that even if I do have a slip of judgement, and then go back to delete whatever it is, it’ll never truly go away. People say think before you speak, but I would argue it’s much more important to think before you type.
As far as creating a positive digital identity, I currently believe that I am. I personally don’t do or post anything that I wouldn’t show either of my grandmothers, but that’s mostly because between my two grandmothers, they’ve got tabs on my Facebook and Instagram. Honestly, it’s mostly for my peace of mind that there isn’t anything out there that I wouldn’t say out loud or show someone where as I know there are a lot of people my age who may worry about the wrong things falling into the wrong hands. I would like to make a LinkedIn page, after reading the article from the company that made the video, I saw a tip that said something about how a LinkedIn page is usually the first thing that pops up when you search your name on Google. There isn’t anything I have to hide on my Facebook, but I was 14 when I got my Facebook and there are some pretty angst-y song lyric statues and I would rather employers find my resume instead of my emo phase.
