Knowing my Digital Identity

This week for our blog post we were assigned to cybersleuth someone in out EDTC300 class and reflect a little bit on what we find and digital identity.

 

So, for this post I cybersluethed Terrell Draude, for this activity I looked at twitter, Instagram, Facebook, his blog and a google search. I started with his twitter, which it seemed that he is fairly active on (sharing resources), he also has a second account that is mostly posts relating to sports. I also checked to see if he was on Instagram and Facebook, however both of those accounts are private, so I didn’t get anything from them. I did do a google search and everything that came up was related to hockey. I did find that he lived in Warman Sk, and in Saskatoon, and he played hockey and now couches hockey. He is in the education program at the University of Regina (middle years). I get the impression that Terrell keeps his his life fairly private and is careful of what he posts and makes public, and I respect that. I have no doubt that he will be an excellent teacher and find a job soon after completing his degree.

 

I believe that it is important to make a good digital identity, however it is also important to have different platforms for different things. For example, I have Instagram and Facebook, but I keep them private and I only friend people that I know and mostly just family and friends, and I don’t post much about teaching or school, it is mainly for keeping in touch with family and friends. My accounts aren’t private because there is inappropriate content, I just prefer to keep my professional and personal lives separate. However, I do use twitter for more professional use, I post mainly about my education, resources and experiences relating to teaching. In this article, the author talks about having different accounts to display different parts of her personality or life, different accounts have different audiences and different content. I also think it’s a personal preference if one keeps their accounts professional or personal or mixes them together on social media platforms.

 

It is also important to be aware of the personal information that you are putting online and how easy it is to find. As we learned from Srkj from this article, written by Katia, it is easier than we would like to believe to find information online. One of the examples that come to mind is having a phone number on a Facebook account, it just always seemed strange to have a phone number on an account. Just the fact that anyone can find your phone number if they know where to look on Facebook, and I never knew what the purpose was of having it there (if anyone knows please do let me know). Anyway, my point is that it is important to check up on your accounts to see what information is available about you.

4 Comments

  1. Tracey Beaven

    Good afternoon Sara,
    Thank you for your post. I totally get what you are saying about different platforms have different purposes, I am the same way. I was thinking about your comment about the phone number and thought about the good old days of the telephone book or 411, which not only had your phone number but also your street address. We still have a house phone and it is listed on 411 and in our local telephone book (although it is very slim at this point). What is funny though, I do not think that I would list my cell phone. I wonder why that is?

    • Sarah

      Hi Tracey,
      Thank you for your comment!
      I find the example of the phone number particularly interesting because I think of my phone number as a very personal, private piece of information and I wouldn’t really want to make it public. However, it is one of the pieces of information that is easily found by someone who knows where to look.

  2. Cassie Mccallum

    Hey Sara, Great post! I agree with you! I think when you have a variety of platforms it is important to balance yourself within them. I really liked how you brought up your cyber sleuthing activity and eased into Digitial Identity.
    Good job!
    -Cass

    • Sarah

      Thank you Cass!

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