Week 5 Blog

 

Digital footprint is a part of a person that will never disappear. This makes old mistakes and poor words visible to anyone in the future, be it in jobs or relationships with other people. Interestingly, a person’s digital footprint and digital identity is not only dependant on what they release to the internet, but also what hackers or scammers can gain access to and exploit others for. 

In a study conducted by Feher (2019), it was found that what people believe is they control around 70 percent of their online presence and the remaining 30 percent is all uncontrolled such as hacking or data leaks. Of course, users can control what they upload to social media or other internet sources however, what if they are part of that 30 percent that have no control over the information being given out. An example of this can be seen through password and information leaks which shows a lack of data protection and the part of the digital identity that users cannot control. There have been advances in this category to prevent issues like this with two-step verification and needing stronger passwords, however the problem remains and can have a life changing effect on users.  



  

Apple has a keychain app to help the user control these passwords and save them for the next use on a website, furthermore it also notes when passwords have been leaked and suggest the user to change it. If this were somebody’s bank account password or a password for important information, this could create a problem for the user that they did not intend to create. 

Digital identity does not contain just negatives, as it has values that can lead to job opportunities and increased learning in the digital world. Bridgstock & Tippett (2019) notes how strong social network literacy can lead to increased digital learning because of the connections made and how those connections can have the opportunity to share learnings. An example given was Gabrielle and Helen who used their digital literacy to interact and contribute to the space and, in doing so, they grew their connections leading to more opportunities to learn (Bridgstock & Tippett, 2019).  

Fehér (2019) explores how people manage their digital identity and online self, showing the difference between personal data and how individuals present themselves online. This influences the previously mentioned subject of social network literacy. Bridgstock and Tippett (2019) highlight that strong social network literacy can support digital learning through the connections people build online. For example, Gabrielle and Helen used their digital skills to engage with others, however a poor digital identity or failure to interact with others could have hindered them both. If what they were showing through their digital identity was poor, they may have failed to make interactions that would have stopped their learning. 


Feher, K. (2021). Digital identity and the online self: Footprint strategies – An exploratory and comparative research study. Journal of Information Science, 47(2), 192–205.



Lupton, M., Oddone, K., & Dreamson, N. (2019). Students’ professional digital identities. In R. Bridgstock & N. Tippett (Eds.), Higher Education and the Future of Graduate Employability: A Connectedness Learning Approach (pp. 30–49). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788972611.00010

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