Digital Footprint

// April 28th, 2009 // Commentary

This is something that has been on my mind a lot lately. You hear that you should be mindful of your digital footprint and how you interact on the internet. Stories of people losing their jobs or having to explain things done on their off hours is nothing new. With this in mind, I sat down and took a look at what my activities are online and what kind of impact this has on me.

I’m a dancer, an avid sci-fi fanboy, a dog lover, and a teacher. Sometimes these different interest intersect, but not often. We all have professional and personal sides to ourselves and I find that, online, the line between the “public” and “personal” me get blurred. How does one separate these personas? I’ve tried filtering and having different pseudonames, but invariably there is not much of a definitive break from the two.

I’ve been online since I was fourteen. I’m no longer the obnoxious kid (I would hope) that I was back then and my views have changed since then. The downside of the internet is that it retains EVERYTHING. That embarassing moment you had when you put your foot in your mouth? It’s saved forever to posterity online! One only has to Google for it.

How do you manage your public (professional) and private (last weekend’s bender with your old college buddies) identities online? How do you brand yourself?