Digital footprints or digital tattoos were never something I worried about. I had heard the term before but never stopped to consider the importance of them. That was until this week. We were asked to take a look at our own digital footprint and I was surprised at just how many places I am linked to. I mean there is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and the list goes on and on. It was shocking to me that I use and am a part of so many online communities. Thankfully I’ve always been cautious about what I am posting and what others post about me online so nothing that came up in my search was negative. However this week has made me think about just how much of my information is online. Is it too much? Is it an okay amount? I mean, much of what we do is online, especially right now in the middle of a global pandemic, but now it has me thinking I need to be more careful. Not only that, but I’m having overwhelming flashbacks of my online footprint when I was younger, like 12 or 13. I was on MySpace as well as some other sites that I can’t even remember and thinking back on that time is scary because I know I posted dumb things. Nothing bad or inappropriate but definitely stupid teenage things that I wish I could delete. I also learned more about how our digital footprint can impact our targeted ads and how online shopping affects our digital footprint. For example, it’s a running joke that the FBI agent in my phone is curating all of these ads just by listening to what I talk about. I always am a little freaked out over me looking at a product on Amazon one day and it showing up on my Instagram ads the next. However, knowing that they can track me and collect data on my likes or dislikes is kind of scary and amazing. All of this has made me even more curious and cautious of my digital footprint and what people can and cannot see. After reviewing the material from this week I checked all of my privacy settings on the apps that I frequent and made sure they were properly secure. Not only that, but all of this information has me thinking about ways to improve the digital citizenship and safety of my students and their online lives. I teach pre-k students and while we don’t use social media or any of that my students still have an email and they are a part of several websites that we need to use through our school. As talked about in the web conference, our digital footprint begins as soon as our parents post a sonogram or baby picture of us. So although my students are young, I want to teach them how to be safe and how to utilize the internet in a positive and appropriate way. I didn’t have as much of that growing up. We were always told that if you wouldn’t want your grandmother or your pastor to see it then don’t post it. I think that is an outdated tool, although it worked for us, this is a different generation and they need to be taught in a different, more in-depth way.
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