Digital Footprints
By Ben Hollis
What is a digital footprint?
A digital footprint is the word used to describe the trail, traces, or footprints that people leave online. This means that everything you search or do on the internet can be seen by anybody.
Making a digital footprint
At the age of thirteen, one is legally eligable to begin developing a digital footprint. Once made, the digital footprint can lead to sucesses in multiple areas of ones life such as in college and career. When making a digital footprint, make sure to only use real information about your identity, dont use a fake name or multiple fake email addreses. Also, it is important to be consistent with your information, for example keep the same email address and username, this will help future employers easily recognize you.
Why does it matter?
Having a good digital footprint matter because it is a big thing that employers look through.
How can employers find it?
Everything you do ends up on a permanet record, future employers can easily search your name and look through this record via google.
Is it bad if employers find nothing online?
It is not horrible if employers cannot find you online, but they would most likely choose somebody that they found with many positive things online about them over somnebody with nothing on them. . therefore, the best thing to do is only post positive things and act as if you are always being watched.
The eleven steps to keeping a good digital footprint.
1. Use the privacy settings
2. Keep a list of accounts
3. Dont overshare
4. Use a password keeper
5. Google yourself
6. Monitor linking acounts
7. Use a secondary email
8. Keep your number of email addressees manigable
9. Sending and publishing are forever
10. Understand that searches are social
11. Use digit6al tools to manage your footprint
Oversharing - Digital Citizenship
The little things matter!!
The digital footprint is not only looked at by employers, it is also looked at by ad companys and stores. For example, if you look at shows for sale on Ebay, then next time you go on social madia a new ad for those kind of shoes might show up. An example for stores is if one day you buy a pack of gum, the next time you come back you might recieve a coupon for that gum. This is a big, but not really though of way, that the digital footprint can affect your life.
Who has access to my digital footprint?
Anybody and everybody has access to your digital footprint, as long as they're willing to take the time to google you, they can find out anything from it.