Your Digital Life…

Management…Protection…Conversations

How many of you use Facebook?

Do you have a resume?

By : Robin Low

your digital FOOTPRINT

are you using social media?

If you are a student and a young adult, the chances are – Yes, you are using Social Media to connect with your friends.

Do you have a blog, Facebook account, Twitter account? Do you leave comments on blogs or forums?

If any of the answer to the above question is yes, you are leaving behind digital footprints.

digital footprintInternet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint.

Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available.

Most do not take steps to limit that information.

Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online.

Majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.

2008 PEW RESEARCH CENTER

I know youAnyone can tell a great deal about you from your digital footprints.

- where you've been- where you are- who you know- where you work- what your hobbies are- what you think about certain issues-and much more.

why should you be concerned?HR departments, recruiters, universities are searching the Internet when you Interact with them.

They're looking to:a) validate what your actual resume/application saidb) learn more about you … in a non office environment.In effect, every job seeker of the future will be not unlike a political candidate. Hopefully their closets are squeaky clean, and if not, devise strategies to address it.

In essence, your digital footprint is your resume.

why should you be concerned?

dynamics of social media

• Invisible Audiences. We are used to being able to assess the people around us when we're speaking. We adjust what we're saying to account for the audience. Social media introduces all sorts of invisible audiences.

• There are lurkers who are present at the moment but whom we cannot see, but there are also visitors who access our content at a later date or in a different environment than where we first produced them.

• As a result, we have to present ourselves and communicate without fully understanding the potential or actual audience.

dynamics of social media

• Collapsed Contexts. Connected to this is the collapsing of contexts. In choosing what to say when, we account for both the audience and the context more generally. Social media brings all of these contexts crashing into one another and it's often difficult to figure out what's appropriate, let alone what can be understood.

• Blurring of Public and Private. Finally, there's the blurring of public and private. These distinctions are normally structured around audience and context with certain places or conversations being "public" or "private." These distinctions are much harder to manage when you have to contend with the shifts in how the environment is organized.

Google youFor those in the job market, it's critical to learn how to monitor and manage electronic information about yourself. While you can't control all the information out there, there are some steps you can take to ensure that your digital footprint presents an accurate, favorable, and professional image of you.

Google yourself (yes Google is now a verb) and find out what information about you — if any — is already online.

You may find very little is linked to your name, or you may discover much more information about you than you anticipated.

YOU

If an online search of yourself reveals items that you wouldn't want hiring managers to see, such as photos or commentary you posted in an open forum, contact the person who posted the information or the website administrator to ask that it be taken down.

It is never too late or too early to start and rebrand yourself.

Do you know your digital footprint?

Are you managing it yet?

Think Before You Post

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and write or do something that may seem hilarious at the time. But remember, what you say can really hurt someone, or come back to haunt you. Think before you post. It only takes a second or two. Ask yourself if you really want to say it. Make sure you don’t mind if your friends, classmates, or teachers hear about it later.

Also remember that any information you post – whether in a comment, a note, or a video chat – might be copied, pasted, and distributed in ways that you didn't intend. Before you post, ask yourself - would I be OK if this content was shared widely at school or with my future employer?

At the same time, we all make mistakes. If you find yourself wishing you hadn’t said or done something, it’s never too late to apologize.

Tips for Teens

Don’t share your password with anyone.Only accept friend requests from people you know.

Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your parents, teachers, or employer to see.

Be authentic. The real you is better than anything you might pretend to be.

Learn about privacy settings, and review them often.

Report Abusive Content

Be sure to always report abusive content—whether it’s on your profile page, or someone else’s. You can also report inappropriate Pages, Groups, Events and fake or impostor profiles. (Remember that reporting is confidential, so no one will know who made the report.)

Why does this

MATTER?

Because

YOUMATTER

What can WE do?

I asked my network what they would want to tell YOU about cyberbullying, and these are their responses…

Bully

Comments?Questions?

We need to stand up against bullying and cyberbullying. We need to be leaders for all.

We need to understand how our online actions affect others AND how they affect our own lives presently and in the future.

Stand up.Stand up now.Stand up for those who can’t.Stand up for those who need YOU.Stand up because YOU MATTER.

Stand up because YOU MATTER to others.

YOUMATTER

YOU MATTER to others.

Spread that message.