Welcome back to the blog my friends!
Today’s topic is an interesting one. To continue our conversation about the everlasting affects of our digital footprints. Is it a good thing to be having our identity online for everyone to have access to? Should our digital footprint be erased and started over when we turn 18? Should people have the same consequences for their online activity as their in-person activity? So many questions arise when we open this up. So, let’s dive right into it!
To start, during class when we were tasked to see what we could find out about ourselves just from a simple Google search, how did you feel? What first came to mind? Anxious? Scared? Embarrassed? I felt all the above. I really had no idea what was going come up. Luckily, nothing came up that I was surprised about, nor did I have anything to feel embarrassed about. I have never had a Facebook or X (Twitter) account, and although my Instagram is private, I’m not overly active on posting material. So, with that regard, I was okay. Other than that, I had a few different sport related items come up. This was a relief to me as I really had no idea what was going to come up when searching my name. I hope most of you all had similar results!
Now comes to the controversial part… should things we find online about people follow them around forever? Should we be publicly shaming people for things they have like, said, or done online? Should we be firing people from their day jobs for their digital footprint? Should politicians and celebrities be held to another standard than teachers and nurses? Well in my humble opinion, for the most part, I do NOT think what we do or say as children/teenagers should follow us into our adult lives. I promise you I am a much different person than I was when I was 16 years old. Now saying that, if you do or say something online as an adult, then yes, I believe there should be consequences. For example, for the lady who tweeted racial comments and worked in PR as we saw in class, then yes, I believe that her getting fired from her job was a accurate consequence. However, I do not believe she should have gone viral, with the whole world hating on her. This can lead to so many serious issues. Two negatives do not make a positive (unless we are multiplying integers). I believe some of comments she received was just as bad as her initial comment and yet those people, from my knowledge, did not receive and backlash. So, where do we draw the line?
Much to think about when it comes to our digital footprint. Let me know what you all think about some of these topics!
Zach
