1) How might your digital footprint affect your future opportunities? Give at least two examples.

My digital footprint could affect my future opportunities by making it more difficult to find a good job. If I apply for a job, the boss might search me up online or go to my social media. If I had posted something inappropriate, it could take away my chance of getting the job because the boss wouldn’t want to hire me. They would choose someone else with a more appropriate digital footprint.

My digital footprint could also affect my future opportunities by teaching people about who I am. The messages and photos that I post online can reflect on the type of person I am. They can also show my likes/dislikes. Depending on what I post, this can help me to make friends or lose friends. If I post appropriate and positive messages online, the people who I know now will remember that as I get older. When I am an adult, friends from high school might remember the things I posted online as a teenager, and that could be negative or positive.

2) Describe at least three strategies that you can use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe.

One way I can keep my digital footprint appropriate and safe is to think before I post something online. Whether I am commenting on a video or posting a picture, I should make sure it is kind, intelligent and truthful. It should also send the people who see it a positive message. I should be careful as to what I post to make sure that it is not too personal, since I don’t know who might see it.

Another strategy I can use is to make sure I am only posting things that I know my parents and teachers would want to see. If I wouldn’t want them to see, then I know that it is not appropriate to post. I need to make sure I don’t put things like my address or phone number anywhere online.

A third strategy is to only follow people who I know. I shouldn’t follow someone if they are a stranger because I don’t know who they are, and they could post or comment inappropriately. If I am following someone who isn’t a close friend or relative, I should be careful about what I share with them. I shouldn’t post something personal because I don’t know much about that person.

3) What information did you learn that you would pass on to other students? How would you go about telling them?

Over the course of this assignment I learned that if I post something, it is important to look at the privacy settings. Even if I think it is private, it could be public by accident and then anyone can see it. Even if I delete something from the internet, it is never fully gone. Anyone could take a screen shot and then share it with others. The message I meant to show to a only few people could easily get shared with people all over the world.

I also learned that the devices I use, like phones or computers, can take away my privacy. Phones can track my location and know exactly when and where I go every day. Computers also have cookies, which remember exactly which websites I go to. Then the devices can make predictions about what places I like to go and what things I like to do. This can be helpful because it could give updates on traffic, recommendations for restaurants, etc. It can also be threatening and creepy though, because then my device would know lots of personal information that I might not want to share.

To pass this information on to other students, I could make a poster about digital safety and post it around Riverside. It would be bold to catch people’s attention. That way many students would be able to read it and maybe learn things that they didn’t know. I could also just talk to my classmates or friends at Riverside. I could tell them about the dangers of social media and the digital world, and how to stay safe and protected.

Sources: (all photos taken from pexels.com)

Image 1:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-and-woman-shaking-hands-1249158/

Image 2:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-silver-iphone-7-887751/

Image 3:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-typing-on-macbook-pro-1548999/

Image 4:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/atlas-continent-country-creativity-269850/

Image 5:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/access-black-and-white-blur-cage-270514/

Image 6:

https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-putting-map-on-wall-1496141/