Honestly, this topic scares me a lot. I never thought much about my online presence before I took this class. I knew in the back of my mind that privacy was non-existent, but I thought that there was nothing I could do about it. It was one of those things where I didn't want to be educated on it because it scared me so much. However, after taking this class I have a deeper appreciation for technology and the internet because of how impressive and widespread it has become after a short amount of time.
Social Media
I have a pretty large online footprint for only being a mere nineteen year old. I am on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and probably so much more. I do not think things through when I join a new social media platform. If it is the new thing and people are doing it, then I'll probably hop on the bandwagon and see what it's about. After taking this class, I am now very aware that these platforms are businesses who have access to all of your personal information and they continue to collect and use it for their personal gain. This will probably make me more hesitant of joining new social media platforms, because I think that the extent that these companies go to is often too far.
Facebook is one of the biggest culprits of why people are often very skeptical of being online. They own Instagram and make a majority of their money through advertisements. This article describes the way that Facebook advertising works. They target your advertisements based on your age, location, gender, and a plethora of other personal information. That means that if the advertisements on your page are interesting to you, then Facebook has a pretty big grasp on who you are. The reason why this is scary is because Facebook and other companies that make money from advertising knows its customers better than most people in their lives. I am willing to bet that Facebook could get me better Christmas presents than my own mother.
Aside from the creepy advertising that these companies do, something that massively came into light this year was the regulation of content by these social media corporations. During the election, Facebook was "factchecking" certain posts and blocked content that was deemed to be untrue. First of all, any idiot can tell that these fact checkers are extremely biased and only block certain content. These are private companies that are using their influence to skew the way that people think. We live in an age where everyone finds their information online, so to see such blatant censorship of content is extremely discouraging to the fundamental principles of this country.
My Personal Footprint
I have grown up in a time where everyone was always on the internet. I started my Instagram account when I was still in elementary school and I witnessed the rise of the world's obsession with other platforms such as Snapchat and Tik Tok. I am probably guilty of sharing too much information on those accounts. Sure, my platforms are private but I don't know every single one of my followers. Any random person could do a quick Google search on me to find out my birthday and the city I live in. From there, it really is not too hard to find out other information these days. It does not scare me as much as it used to, because every kid in the world with a cellphone has a social media and does the same thing. Personal information suddenly doesn't seem that personal when there is quick access to it with a simple search.
With all of that being said, I am pretty proud about what is out there about me on the internet. When you search my name on Google, the first link that comes up is my LinkedIn account. I have worked hard on my LinkedIn page and I think that it is pretty good. It gives the general public the assumption that I am a pretty professional person. If somebody read my profile, they would know that I have done a lot at a young age and hopefully that gives off a great impression that would make people want to hire me. My Facebook and Twitter page also come up. I am not embarrassed about anything that is on those platforms and I don't think there is anything on those that would cause an employer not to hire me. It is pretty normal content that wouldn't catch an employer's eye in a negative way. There isn't much about me on the internet other than what I choose to post.
I think in this day and age, you have to be pretty comfortable with the whole world viewing what you put on the internet. Even if your page is private, there is nothing truly private about the internet. Companies can even pay money to view your private Snapchat stories. I definitely freaked out a little when I found out about this. The amount of inappropriate content I see posted on social media even by my peers in this class is enough to get someone fired. The golden rule that I try to live by is that if my grandparents would not be ok with my content, then I probably shouldn't be posting it.
This post centered around social media, because that is the majority of my online presence. The majority of people don't have articles written about them or a ton of unflattering paparazzi photos on the internet for people to ridicule. Your online presence for the most part is what you want it to be. However, it is hard to keep up with the world without having social media. People are often judged even more harshly for not having any social media. Society normalizes sharing information on the internet which makes it easier and easier for companies to curate personal advertisements for you.
This class taught me to be aware of my presence on the internet and to take privacy seriously. Just because certain companies own most of the internet and can control people through social media, that doesn't mean they are right or ethical. Being educated is a pathway to fighting these companies for privacy rights. My online footprint might not be 100% controllable, but I can do what I can to be careful about what I post online. Unfortunately, a lot of us get into social media and internet sites when we are kids and don't know any better about the power of the internet to ruin lives. The best we can do is routinely clean up our online presence to make it the best that it can be.
