Digital Tattoo

 Digital Tattoo:

What I Leave Behind on Social Media

Image Source: The Ubyssey

Digital Tattoos: What Are They?

    Although they aren't legitimate tattoos that we get inked onto our bodies, they are just as permanent and can follow us everywhere--just digitally. Digital tattoos are the imprints we leave behind online on our websites, on our social media, and all information on us that is considered public record can be left behind for years to come.

    These digital tattoos reflect on our decisions, our posts and actions, through the online world. It is important to maintain a good record on our social media (as well as other sites we're a part of or run) in order to maintain a good reputation. Same as our criminal record, digital tattoos can reveal a lot about who we are and what we've said or done, which many people have access to at their fingertips.

    Why would this be important? We keep our social lives on social media, but we can behave differently--appropriately--at work or other social events, so why would it matter what we post online? Many companies have turned to social media to review their potential employees or candidates to get a better sense of who they are about to hire. It doesn't matter if we keep away from hot topics in the workplace because if you say it online, there's a chance you're thinking it, and tempted to say it in a professional setting.

Data Mine

Image Source: Shelby West (Teachers Pay Teachers)

    As pre-teens and teenagers--high schoolers even--we have done things we may look back on now and regret. The things we may have done or said, posted or shared on social media may be something that we find "cringeworthy" when it comes up on our Facebook or Snapchat memories.

    Many-a-times I find myself asking "Why on EARTH did I ever think that was cool?" when my memories from junior high and high school come up each year on my Facebook. It wasn't anything bad or inappropriate, but definitely something an immature pre-teen/teenager would post in the heat of the moment.

    As I approached this assignment, I was completely petrified of what I would find. Considering my first social media page was MySpace, and it was never technically deleted (it just went dormant, I was worried that something from my old page would be thrown onto my multiple searches. 

    I was very much prepared for finding many of my recent posts as I am a social media addict. I have a personal Facebook and Instagram page, as well as two professional Instagram accounts (for teaching and photography). I also run a Facebook page for my Highlander Village Circle. Being an active individual of the Polish Highlander Community, I have had pictures, articles, and events posted to YouTube and the home page for the Polish Highlander Alliance in North America. Since I didn't know where to begin, I started by searching my name.

    The results that came up weren't a surprise. My first and last name brought me to the ZPPA (Highlander Alliance page) with way too many photos from my teenage to present years of service, as well as the YouTube videos. It also brought up my photo and short biography for my school's Teacher page, not to mention my professional profile on LinkedIn. A few photos come up from my high school days, which are posted on my personal Facebook profile. However, these results did not surprise me, as I have had many of my students Google me in the past. Luckily, I was present to explain that the man in one of the photos was not my boyfriend, but a Kiss FM representative who was in our school for homecoming week. If my students were able to pull up my information and come up with random theories, I can only imagine what other parties have found and thought about the results.

    Ever since I began teaching high school, I changed many of my profiles to being my first and middle name. Seeing that not too many people know what it is, they are not able to find my social media as quickly. When I researched that name, I was brought to my personal Facebook profile, as well as my previous personal Instagram page. I say previous because about a month ago, my profile was hacked by a money scammer, and I was never able to retrieve it. I was fortunate enough to have friends who noticed the scams being posted to my profile, which led them to reporting the page. Unfortunately, Instagram has not yet banned the profile or retrieved the information for me, meaning there is a random person out in the world using my name and over 500 photos of my face to scam other people on the application. Ever since then, I have switched my typical username, one I have been using for almost two decades, and started using my late-grandfather's nickname for my new profiles.

    Now, when I search the new nickname, my new Instagram profile comes up along with my TikTok page that is filled with "Get Ready with Me" videos and Highlander costume transformations (which I'm happy to share here if anyone is interested in seeing what a traditional Polish Highlander costume consists of).

    Some surprises were the random people who came up in the searches. There are more people in the world with my name than I had expected, and it is interesting to learn about them as I try to retrieve my own digital tattoo. Some results were their Facebook pages, a few obituaries, there was a criminal file for an arrest and court hearing for a woman with my first and last name somewhere in California. The real kicker was that she has my sister's name for her middle name! But my most favorite result--by far--that I have ever gotten is Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which just so happened to be the nickname I was given in undergrad.

Educating Young Minds on Digital Footprints

Image Source: Easy Code Way

    One of my former co-workers put up a specific poster in her classroom every single year. It read: Do not put something out there that people are not meant to see. On the poster was a cartoon image of a cellphone with undergarments hanging out to dry on a clothesline. 

    I found this poster so incredibly powerful that it almost screamed "DO NOT POST EVERYTHING TO SOCIAL MEDIA!"

    

    My school focuses on digital footprints with students from grades 3 and up. Our Social/Emotional Learning teacher does an entire unit on how the content we post and/or share to social media can be found later on, and it may (or may not) be something that haunts us later in life. We educate our students to use their social media wisely and with caution. This means that they need to be careful about what they post, comment/communicate, and share (publicly AND privately). Once they hit that send button, there's not going back.

    Students, still, do not understand the impact and affect our social media has on us as well as others. They also believe that simply deleting the content, which should not have been posted in the first place, can make things better. Technology today is so advanced that there is no saving that digital footprint and making it look better later on in life. Anyone can take a screen shot, save a video, screen record, etc. content that we may not want up on our personal pages, or content that we have been tagged in by other people.

    I find that it is better to be educated on what should versus what shouldn't be placed online--in any way, shape, or form--rather than having to regret those decisions later because then it may be too late to salvage what has already been done.