Internet Footprints and Digital Shadows

Be afraid, be very afraid!  Everything you do, and don't do, on the internet leaves an imprint that will be there forever to haunt you (and everyone else!).  When I started this course, I was anonomous on the internet - apart from a facebook account I did not exist.  Now, very scarily, I cannot escape from myself and I wonder what people make of me, and whether I am showing my true self.  What will happen when I go for a new job?  Will I be googled and will they like what they see?  Will I have to tone down my comments on Facebook in case an employer makes the connection between me dancing on a table at the local nightcub and my professional persona as a teacher?  Where can I be myself?  Obviously not on the internet.

Boyd's article on Social Convergence highlights the dangers in our two sides converging and points out that the definition of privacy is subtly changing.  On Facebook in particular, what was once posted privately to friends if they wished to know, is now broadcast publically so that noone can miss it, even if they wanted to.  This is especially dangerous as our circle of 'friends' now includes both strong and weak ties (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007) and our "disparate social contexts are collapsed into one" (Boyd, 2008, p. 18).  Private posts are directed to a hugely varied audience simultaneously and without a social script, and we need to be very, very careful what we say and how we say it.   

This should be alarming for teenagers today.  Whereas our drunken nights and embarrassing moments were limited to a few close friends, and strangers who we will never see again, and are therefore faded and forgotten, their whole lives are played out on the Internet for everyone to see and remember forever!  Just think, Star Wars Kid!!

Happy blogging!

References

Boyd D.  (2008).  Facebook's privacy trainwreck: exposure, invasion and social convergence.  Convergence: the international journal of research into new technologies, vol 14(1), 13-20.  Retrieved from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/

Ellison N., Steinfield C & Lampe C.  (2007).  The benefits of facebook "friends"; social capital and college students' use of online social network sites.  Journal of computer-mediated communication, 12(4), article 1.  retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html