Digital Footprint

The article Digital Footprints talks about how your digital footprint is most likely being written without you, and how some of it may be good, bad, and most beyond your control. A digital footprint is traces left by someone’s activity in a digital environment. On the Internet when someone is networking it means to connect with people over the world and to share information with each other. When it comes to our learning and social life the Internet has played an important role both positively and negatively.

The main idea of the article focuses on networking. Is it good or bad?

The good side to networking is being able to connect with others around the world. Being able to talk to others with the same interest and passion as you. An example being Facebook, where people are able to become friends with you, share photos, talk to each other, and much more. For instance, on Facebook I am able to connect with people who I went to kindergarten with! This allows me to remember old friends as well as remember good old times. By networking you are also able to communicate a lot about the person and about yourself. The way you talk on Facebook or msn can represent what type of mood you’re in with the emoticons and the way you type (short form – “U” instead of “You”). Also, when it comes to networking there is also a positive effect on the education purposes. You are able to research on topics you didn’t know about and learn many new things.

Not having any form of a social networking can sometimes become a downfall. When potential employer, college recruiter or client Google’s your name and does not find anything or much what does that mean? It then becomes a negative light on your resume or portfolio. What I mean by this is that by not having any form of social networking means your not interactive with others or not allowing yourself outside the box. Also another downside would have to be the effect the networking language has on the minds of children. Students tend to use words on msn or Facebook such as “R” as are, “U” as you “Rite” as Write and etc. This sense of communication will affect the way students think and approach a piece of work in class. For instance I can relate back to when I was writing my essay worth 10% of my final grade in semester 1 (grade ten). When typing up the draft I used words such as “u, r, rite, bak, wat, etc”. Since I was so caught up in my msn language it didn’t ring a bell that my writing was wrong. Thankfully it was a draft and got edited by someone, or else I could have easily lost 5% on grammar and spelling on the rubric.

Furthermore, networking in my perspective has changed our lives, and maybe even taken over it for some of us. In the past, forms of communications were letters to people or using the telephone. When sending a letter to another country you had to pay shipping and stamps and more. Nowadays, we can communicate to as many people, from any part of the world extremely fast through emails with no charge. When it comes to taking over the lives of some of us, I believe that the network is really successful in doing this. Personally, I know of many people who come home from school and the first thing they do is turn on their computer. Even worst they sit there for the whole day and waste time. This experience can connect too many people. Or when people go far away, such as cottages over the summer and don’t have any form of messaging their friends over the Internet they freak out as if they can’t live without the computer! This is how the network is taking over our lives.

As you continue to read the article is gives you an example of a social net worker who is on their way to being Googled well. The network allows you to communicate ideas and messages; very effectively as many people can view it. Laura a 10-year-old girl started a blog “twenty-five days to make a difference”. She got a lot of readers who are being influenced to make a difference. She used the Internet to be able to promote charities and funds in memory of her grandfather. This shows that no matter what age, everyone can make a difference and should as they can change what is occurring around the world to a better place to be. Being able to be Googled well is what this article also talks about.

When someone Googles your name, business, school, etc to get information about you, what do you want to show up? Of course something good! These are where the tips come in handy to be able to build your own personal learning network. So that in the future you can be Googled well.

In conclusion, I believe that children should be encouraged to continue using the Internet if they are communicating in a respectful and appropriate tone or is using the Internet as a source of education. Networking does have its ups and downs but if you know how to use it carefully then carry on, but if you don’t then start thinking before you act.