Digital Identity

--Originally published at arantza's blog

So today I want to write about digital identity, which is what I’ve been learning about this week in school. Digital identity is basically who you are on the internet, which means on any type of social media like Twitter, Facebook and such. Even though social media sounds magical and awesome, what’s not cool is to make your personal information available to everyone. I may seem paranoid, but the truth is there’s a lot of crazy people out there who may want to harm you and the people you may know. What I strongly recommend is that you be careful with what kind of information you make available for everyone to see, like your address.

Social-Media-Consumption-Facts.jpgI would also like to say that the way you behave online has a big impact on others and their opinions about you. For example, let’s say that someone posts an embarrassing photo of someone else. You have a few choices: tell the person who published it to take it down (even though it cannot be entirely erased now), report this person, or share the photo and become another cyber bully. Another example is a company that fires its employees for what they post online. This happened some time ago in a company that produces canned goods, which I won’t mention (you know, I don’t want to give bad publicity). Some employees where “doing their job” and posting some photos on Facebook. Well what they did was that they were taking their pants off and taking pictures while the food was there, before it was canned. Guess what happened later? A lot of customers saw these photos on social media and they decided to stop purchasing these goods because of what the employees were doing… Of course, they got fired on the spot.

pexels-photo-57690.jpegAnyway, social media can be fun, educational, and it brings people together, which creates a globalized world. Your digital identity can be safe and can look good if you are careful enough on social media and anything that involves you and your interaction with others online. There won’t be any bad consequences if you are conscious of what you post, what you share, and what you publish.

If you guys want to watch a YouTube video of Dave Cormier (educational researcher and speaker on Open Learning) talking about digital identity, go ahead!   He explains that you should always post anything that your mom wouldn’t be embarrassed of… True.