Cybersleuthing & Digital Identity

“Everyone presents an edited version of life on social media. People share moments that reflect an ideal life, an ideal self.” This past week, the topic of discussion was all about digital identity.  A couple of years ago, I decided that I would be better off without social media, so I deleted my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for good.  I thought having no online presence, no “digital identity” would be a good thing.  I did this for a few reasons.  The first reason relates to the quote I posted at the beginning of this paragraph.  I believed that social media was negatively impacting my mental health—I was comparing my “low-lights” to everyone else’s “highlights.” I also deleted my social media due to privacy.  I believed that the less people could find of me on the internet, the better.  This is something that I continued to believe until I started this class (edtc300).

Through this class, I have learned the importance of having a digital identity—one that you can control the narrative of.  In this Ted Talk by Jon Ronson, he talks about how in this new, technological world, one tweet can ruin your life.  This is another reason why I used to shy away from having a digital identity.  I didn’t want to make a mistake on the internet that would have real-world consequences.  But now I realize the importance of establishing a professional digital identity.  I now have my Twitter account that I use to connect with other professionals, my educational blog, and a LinkedIn page.  If random people or potential employers look me up online, these are the things they will find, but these are the things I am happy for them to find.  When you try to stay off the internet completely, you never know what will come up when people search your name.  It doesn’t have to be this way; you do have some control over what your digital identity contains

To go along with the topic of digital identity, we were asked to partner up and “sleuth” our partner to see what we could find online.  I partnered up with Ian Mansfield.  Looking at his blog, you can see that he graduated from the University of Regina with a Bachelor of Science in geology in 2013, and has been working as a geologist for the past 7+ years.  He is now in the Bachelor of Education After Degree program to become a secondary science teacher.  Everything looks good here.  I then used my girlfriend’s Facebook account to check into his Facebook.  Ian has his Facebook pretty locked up, and the only thing I was able to find was the name of a few of his relatives, and looking at his Facebook, it is obvious he is a dog lover. I then checked Instagram, nothing, Pinterest, nothing. But he does pop up on LinkedIn, showing his professional experiences.  I also came across his YouTube channel, but the only thing on it is his edtc300 learning project (I recommend checking it out).  I found that he won the Robert Milner Geological Society award in 2011, and the only other thing I managed to find was his Twitter, which only has tweets starting from this January.  Overall, Ian has a nice, professional appearance online; good job Ian!

Did last week’s discussion on digital identity make you reconsider your stance on the topic?

Thanks for reading!