Your Impressions on the Internet

A person's digital footprint is his/her's online presence painted in a trail of all his/her's searches, interactions, and even personal information. Morehouse (2011), states that 87% of Americans can be identified online with just three facts about them: zip code, birthday, and gender. Every day, people contribute to growing their online profiles, which assists a variety of others to examine your interests. Whether its companies who hope to target content towards specific markets or consumers, organizations looking into a possible employee's background, or advertisers tracking your movements to certain websites; the opportunities are endless. According to Cowell (2010), in 2009, 45% of all hiring managers used search engines to research the digital footprint of potential applicants, and the percentage grows each year. Your digital history can be stored and tracked on a database, which is preserved forever. Furthermore, people do not realize the impact of their actions and potentially how publicized their information truly is. It is important for users to protect your digital identity by managing and reducing your digital trace.

Nicola Osborne, a digital education and social media expert, presents a TedTalk called "What Does Your Digital Footprint Say About You". She encourages viewers to be conscientious about what they post on social media and to consider what their digital footprint might reveal about themselves.

My digital footprint, like many others, is connected to all my social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc), my shopping habits, and all of my searches. While I don't have a personal website or online portfolio, there is still enough data online for anyone to discover personal information about myself. I use Instagram and Snapchat the most frequently, by posting images, location information, tagging others, etc. I attempt to keep as much information as private as I can by setting my accounts to private and share limited information. Anyone can search my name (first and last) up and find my profile picture and on some accounts more information (where I went to high school, my followers, etc). I've encountered a problematic situation which made me be more wearily of my digital presence and has made me put out less information and research myself more often. According to Cowell (2010), most people don't know what's in their digital footprint with only 3% of people performing a search on themselves regularly and almost three quarters only searching themselves once or twice. There are definitely some pros and cons to extending your activity online; however, it's important for everyone to understand the concept and the consequences of the actions. 

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