Making your Own Online Presence

This post will discuss how the use of digital technologies
on a daily basis is shaping our identities, how the constant use of the
internet is making a digital copy of our identities that will stay there infinitely.
It’s not in our hands anymore to choose how people perceive us, nowadays the
internet is the ultimate platform to find out everything one needs to know
about an individual. “You have one identity. […] Having two identities for
yourself is an example of a lack of integrity.” Zuckerberg quoted in
Kirkpatrick. Having this digital identity is the most adequate way to be
integrated into today’s digital society. Lindgren comments on this subject by
discussing the neutrality of technology and how it is connected to an environmental,
human and social dimension. He also states that through the interaction between
society and media, digital society is born. (Lindgren, S., 2017)
Personally, I am very careful while using social media
networking sites, as I never really felt comfortable using them as I always
knew about the phenomena that is ‘the internet doesn’t forget’. Hence, I always
felt that posting my information on social media was the same as getting a permanent
tattoo imprinted on my body. However, I have a rarely used Facebook account, an
Instagram account that I use regularly without posting content. In class we
were taught that an individual who uses social media but doesn’t post content is
what is called a lurker, therefore I guess I’m a lurker. I use twitter to
follow specific inspirational and political individuals and some news outlets
to keep me up to date. My social media personality or my public identity, as
Turkle calls it, as of right now isn’t very up to date, as I started using
these sites when I was young thus wasn’t in the right mindset to be distributing
content, so I stopped and never really felt the need to come back to it. However,
coming to Maastricht gave me a different view of using social media, as the
content I should be posting, should be my personal brand, the one I am going to
sell to my future employers. Social Media shouldn’t be a means to show off to one’s
friends, as a lot of millennials do. Most of them show off a life that is nicer
than the one they are living, as it has turned into a contest of who
is enjoying himself the most.
That doesn’t exclude the fact that I have a big digital footprint, due
to my google searches, my YouTube video selection, and my google maps
whereabouts. I try to be as careful as possible while releasing data providing
access to my personal information. Social Media users usually don’t realize how
much information about them is being distributed on an hourly basis. There’s a
huge lack of awareness concerning social media use in modern society. However, I
believe that all things could be beneficial if used in moderation and with a
lot of care, even social media can be used to help one’s career. As we
are being taught in this program to improve our brand by investing our
time and efforts in making our own online presence, taking control of our
digital identity.