Community Contribution #1- Digital Identity

Digital Identity is who you are through a digital lens. Anything you have ever posted, interacted with, or otherwise done on the internet is part of your digital identity. Because of this it is ever changing and doesn’t tend to stay the same for long. In the video Eric Stoller – What is Digital Identity? (2016) digital identity is referred to as your “footprint on the web,” it is the recordable traces you leave behind on the internet. Due to the prevalence of social media in our world, personal life ends up invading our professional lives. The things we meant to share to only our closest friends and family are now reaching the eyes of our colleagues. This is a challenge most people are facing currently as employers closely watch the digital personas of their current or future employees.

Personal digital identity is rooted in our own experiences, it’s more authentic to the person themselves. Generally this is more casual and reflective of your true self and feelings. On the other hand, professional digital identity is more polished and refined. It shows someone exactly what you want them to see and nothing else. Professional digital identity is strategic and private, it’s there to help maintain your reputation and get you further in your career. In Danah Boyd’s (2012) Networked Privacy its stated that, “In a networked world, data is more persistent, replicable, searchable, and scalable than ever before.” This ease of access of information is making it harder and harder for people to keep their social lives and professional lives separate from one another. As a result of this your coworker knows about your sister’s new baby and the aunt you haven’t spoken to in years knows about your new promotion. This blending of separate parts of your life can bring connection but it can also create many problems within your career due to personal content being misunderstood or brought into the workplace.

I find myself being extremely watchful of what I post on social media these days as it absolutely will affect my future career in education. Many of my high school teachers used their middle names or catchy usernames on their social media in hopes to hide from the public eye but it was never successful. This perfectly demonstrates Boyd’s (2012) point that “Any model of privacy that focuses on the control of information will fail.” Since social media has become such an integral part of our lives there is no way to ensure that these two parts of your life stay separate. Educators can not rely simply on making their accounts “private” but instead they must ensure that their social media reflects what they want to be seen by the public eye.

Boyd, D. (2012). Networked Privacy. Surveillance & Society, 10 (3/4), 348–350. https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/networked/networked 

University of Derby. (2016, November 25). Eric Stoller – What is Digital Identity? [Video]. YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0