My Online Self-Audit

Growing up in an increasingly technology-oriented era, social media has become a big part of my life. I use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and LinkedIn, with the main purpose of staying connected with my family and friends, both at home and in college. After learning about social media from my sisters and parents, I discovered the critical importance of privacy and protecting my personal information. I make professionalism a priority, and normally only make a post if I want to share about  a major event or milestone in my life. I use my regular email address (with a fake birthday and address), but refuse to give my phone number. Additionally, coming from a slightly different angle than the 14-year-old in the Fast Company article who quit social media because of the lack of privacy (her family posting about her without her permission), my family and friends 'tag' me in their own posts, but they always use precaution when posting or ask permission before they make a post public.

However, even with all of those precautions that I execute on a day-to-day basis, I still found it important to understand what my online presence looks like to future employers as well as to my family and peers. After simply Googling my name (which is fairly unique), I found that I have a very large online presence. I saw several newspaper articles, my LinkedIn page, some of my video productions that I have posted on YouTube, and my personal website focused on my video work. If someone were to assess my personality and interests by Googling me and looking at my social media, they would probably see that my main passions are showing dogs, filmmaking, and spending time with my family (which is pretty accurate). Luckily, I did not see any breach of personal information or unprofessional photos in the brief online self-audit that I conducted.

Learning more about Facebook makes me question if my privacy-protection practices are sufficient, or if I need to continue to work harder to maintain a positive and secure online presence. I was shocked to hear in an Atlantic article about Facebook that 74% of surveyed Facebook users were unaware of Facebook's practices of tracking their "traits and interests" in order to show ads that will attract them. I look forward to continuing to understand how my online and social media practices can improve in order to protect my privacy, as well as how Facebook can be more transparent in their use of our personal information.

That's all for now!