With the seemingly unlimited ways that an individual now has to interact on the web through email, picture sharing, blogs,podcasts, wikis, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and You Tube, it can become overwhelming. Many people try their hand at multiple sites- creating profiles and posting before settling on one they favor. I’ve found myself using countless sites for various reasons such as work, graduate school assignments, and organizations I’m a member of. Over time, it can become easy to forget some of the profiles and posts that you’ve put out on the web- many times even years ago. If you don’t believe me, search for your name on google, pipl.com or socialmention.com and look at some of the links that pop up. What does your digital footprint look like now? See a wall post you made in a chat room while you were in college? What about that picture that a friend took of you over Spring Break that you had never seen before? Find a profile for a site that you had completely forgotten you had created so long ago?
For students, the use of social media has created lots of wonderful opportunities to connect with the world with 73% of wired American teens ages 12-17 using one form or another of social networking sites. According to ASCD, 43% of high school students use social networking as their primary means of communicating with their friends.
Unfortunately, EVERYTHING that a person posts online, regardless of how humorous or playful it may seem, is likely stored permanently somewhere online indefinitely. According to Kaplan, 4 out of 5 US college and university recruiting officers review social networks and digital footprints of applicants with 38% of them saying that prospective students’ online postings had hurt their chances of being admitted.
Some things that every student should keep in mind with their online presence:
- The Internet is not going away
- Manage your privacy settings effectively
- Don’t post if something if you think you’ll be embarrassed now or in the future. Imagine your future grandkids or your boss searching your name many years from now.
- Be selective with what you show the world
- If you worry about your physical appearance, you should be equally concerned with your online appearance.
A great resource that gives an overview of the power of your digital footprint and would be great for any student, parent or teacher to review can be found here.
Other Digital Footprint resources:
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