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Managing your digital identity

Managing your digital identity

Through the course we have looked at the many benefits that social media provide us as consumers. However, we need to look beyond this narrow field and look towards how these platforms can benefit us as individuals and for the companies we work for.  These platforms allow us to have a presence in an increasingly digital world, an ability to talk on a global scale to create a personal brand that opens opportunities never seen before.

Within this new frontier comes new problems as well and learning how to navigate the netiquette of things has never been more important. As mentioned in the YouTube clip by Equalman, “What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube” (Equalman, 2019).

As a tool for organisations and personal use there is no greater access to self-promotion or for a product for free than the signing up for a Facebook account. Yet what most people fail to recognise this is just the first step in a long journey. An online persona must be monitored, nurtured, and cultivated. When collaborating or sharing information with peers or clients online you must be aware of issues relating to ethics and the treatment of those you interact with. As Osborne points out “the data you leave behind when you go online” encourages us to tread carefully on social media and to consider what our online presence might reveal to a prospective employer (Osborne, 2016).

Another important issue to recognise is that not only can your data be monetised for profit, the content you publish online could be detrimental to your future employability.

It is important to know where to find your privacy settings, and how to know if the post or tweet is being sent to a local set of friends or to a public audience.

With this in mind, the use of social media groups on platforms such as Facebook can be an a tool for peer to peer learning. As discussed by Sutherland, academic students using university social media profiles are more likely to engage with the broader university community and potentially less likely to drop out within their first year of study (Sutherland, 2018).

This is just a small list of considerations when planning an online presence for either yourself or for your employer. In either case the shaping your online identity will require planning and continual work and a continuous regulation of the terms and conditions that are required of each platform.

References

Equalman, (2019, January 8). Digital transformation video [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k_G_h41ZaQ

Facebook, (2020). Terms of service.  Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Karen Sutherland, Cindy Davis, Uwe Terton, & Irene Visser. (2018). University student social media use and its influence on offline engagement in higher educational communities. Student Success, 9(2), 13-24.

Osborne, N. (2016, December 2 ). What does your digital footprints say about you [Video  file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVX8ZSAR4OY

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Social media and society – Journal analysis

American Behavioral Scientist article analysis

“Should I stay or should I go” poses an interesting and timely reminder with the upcoming November elections in America. The discussion of the positives and negatives of using social media and a particular focus on Facebook is somewhat timely.

The article looks into the Cambridge Analytica scandal where a private company was able to harvest personal information from Facebook users without their permission and the effect it had on people deciding to delete their profile or not.

Brown investigates the initial reaction to the scandal by focusing on the reactions of users aged 18 to 29, looking at if their reliance on the connectivity of the social media platform is more important than that of their personal privacy.

I find the paper supportive of DeRosa’s definitions of social network platforms being supportive of facilitating interaction between users (DeRosa, 2007).

Caci identifies a similar finding in that highly extroverted people tend to engage and disclose greater amount of information than an introverted user who may share concerns about misuse of personal information from an external source (Caci, 2019)

Looking at the author’s methodology for conducting his research, they have taken a standard qualitative collection of data by conducting interviews with a mixed group of respondents. I agree with the method used; however, I feel the limited range of subjects and the use of only one university campus location does not provide a sufficient breadth for a definitive result.  Although the information gathered from the group is credible, the reliability due to the limited size of respondents questions the quality of the data considering the scale of the scandal.

I am supportive in the conclusion that most users are not aware of the lucrative business behind their online presence. As Rosenburg discussed the scandal affected an estimated 50 million users, and not only made the company a substantial amount of money, it also potentially affected the federal US election results (Rosenburg, 2018). I feel that there is strong potential for the article to lead to further investigation and peer reviewed literature to discuss the concerns of social media users and their understanding of privacy terms and conditions.

References

Caci, B., Cardaci, M., & Miceli, S. (2019). Development and Maintenance of Self-Disclosure on Facebook: The Role of Personality Traits. SAGE Open, 9(2), SAGE Open, June 2019, Vol.9(2).

De Rosa, C. (2007) OCLC xiv Sharing, privacy and trust in our networked world: a report to the OCLC Membership. Retrieved from https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/reports/pdfs/sharing.pdf

Rosenburg, M. &Confessore, N. & Cadwalladr, C. (2018, March 17). How Trump consultants exploited the Facebook data of millions. Retrieved from. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/politics/cambridge-analytica-trump-campaign.html