In this blogpost I will be discussing digital footprint. So what is digital footprint you ask? Well, digital footprint refers to everything you leave behind when you use the internet according to interentsociety.org (2018). Basically your digital footprint is your internet history that can include everything from adding a comment to a photo on facebook, doing a google search, watching a youtube video and even blog posts such as this one. Your digital footprint is a collection of data that is created whenever you interact with and or put content out into the online world. Natalie Athanasiadis of Ormi Media also point outs that this creation of your digital footprint can also be passive by ways of small things like a website collecting your IP address or more active through larger acts like posting a tweet (Erickson 2018). So, what does your digital footprint do? Some positives could be that advertisers can use your information to personalize adds for you. For example, if you do a google search for a coffee maker and then a few hours later you are scrolling on facebook and see ads for coffee makers- this is no coincidence. Also, things like cookies can be used to your advantage so that frequently visited websites can track your activity which can help with things like saving what you havein a shopping cart on an online website or help remember your login. Also  a major upside to taking charge of your digital footprint is that we are living in a digital age where social media presence is important, and for some is even a job. For people such as social media influencer and YouTubers the internet is their workplace and without it their career wouldn’t exist. Take for example even the social media portion of this program, by having a twitter account and a blog we are effectively contributing to the ongoing conversations being had about education globally. The downside to all this is that whatever information you put out there is there forever. Even though things like picture and tweets may be deleted they never truly leave the internet atmosphere. To be honest this can be a little daunting. To test out some digital footprint strategies suggested by Norton Online on myself I did a quick google search of my name and was a little bit starteled to find that picture of me that is on my current workplaces website was the second image to come up on google images. WOW . I think the big picture with digital footprint is that the internet is an awesome tool not only for work and study but also entertainment and soial interaction but we need to be aware about what we do with it.

Ericksen, K. (2018, May 16). Your Digital Footprint: What Is It and How Can You Manage It? Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/college-life/what-is-digital-footprint/

NortonOnline. (n.d.). Help protect your digital footprint from prying eyes. Retrieved from https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-clean-up-online-digital-footprint.html

Your Digital Footprint Matters. (2018, May 30). Retrieved from https://www.internetsociety.org/tutorials/your-digital-footprint-matters/