What is a Digital Identity?
Digital Identity can be summarized into the persona that you present on social media services and what you consume. It makes up your footprint on the web, which is something that peers, coworkers, and supervisors can search for (University of Derby, 2016, 0:25). As a future educator, this is something that I have had to keep in mind as I grow my online presence and sign up for more social media accounts. If not for professional reasons, your digital identity is important because it gives a snapshot of who you are, which anyone in your social world can see.
How do digital identities converge in networked publics? What are the impacts and/or benefits?
As previously mentioned, our digital identities are made up of all the various accounts and mentions from different networked publics. That can be good because all information can be accumulated together to create one digital identity that follows you as you explore the internet. On the other hand, it creates a privacy concern for users. Social media spaces take your information and what you consume to create targeted posts and ads that follow you across different services. They may also take your information and sell it to make a profit and keep their service free.
What does it mean to network using social media?
Networking is an attitude towards learning that needs to be cultivated, not something that can be visited occasionally at surface level. It is also intertwined with lifelong learning. Networking refers to the cultivation and creation of connections related to a person’s learning needs. On social media, that could be done by introducing yourself online or reaching out to people who may be useful connections. Rajagopal and colleagues(2012) describe three important tasks that build the basis of all connections within a network: building connections, maintaining connections, and activating connections. The second step, maintaining connections, could be greatly supported by social media. One of the main reasons why someone may sign up for a social media site is to keep up with friends and acquaintances that they may not see often. In that case, social media could help them network with friends and colleagues.
How are we motivated to participate in networked publics? What are the risks & rewards of public communications?
Network publics motivate us in the way that they allow us into a community of other users who could potentially lure us into a mutually reinforced point of view (Spracklen, 2015). Networked publics allow us to find groups of people who share similar interests, hobbies, and ideas, which is nice for building community, but can be dangerous if those groups are the only networks we engage with. Spracklen explains that social media makes it easy to unfriend or block someone who has different views from you, therefore reducing your exposure to differing perspectives. It is important to engage with various points of view on the internet to ensure you can form an educated opinion on current events and social contexts around the world.
How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?
Someone with a personal approach to digital identity may use social media in a more close-minded way. Their usage could seek out what they would like to see and block out what doesn’t please them. Someone with a professional approach to social media may seek to make more connections with people they encounter on networked publics. Additionally, they may choose to engage with content that would benefit their professional learning needs.
Final Thoughts
I have always thought about my digital footprint when using social media, but this week’s reading and videos helped me gain a new understanding of the impact of digital identity and personal learning networks. Something that I found particularly interesting was the press conference on the value of digital identity for the global economy and society (World Economic Forum, 2019). I had always considered digital identity to be a digital footprint as it relates to social media use, but the forum discussed how it could be used in economic and political ways. A few of the speakers discussed how digital identities could be implemented as identification for people who are in the process of moving between countries and who may not have a government-issued ID in the first place (12:41).
— Sofia
Rajagopal, K., Joosten–ten Brinke, D., Van Bruggen, J., & Sloep, P. B. (2012). Understanding personal learning networks: Their structure, content and the networking skills needed to optimally use them. First Monday, 17(1).
Spracklen, K. (2015). Identity-Making and Social Media. In Digital Leisure, the Internet and Popular Culture (pp. 94–112). Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137405876_6#citeas
University of Derby. (2016). Eric Stroller – What is Digital Identity? On YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0&t=25s
World Economic Forum. (2019). Davos 2019 – press conference on the value of digital identity for the global economy and society. On YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-V7lyxrOmw
Hey Sofia!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post and the personal connections you made to the topics discussed. As a future educator myself, I think being aware of our online presence is extremely important. We not only have to be mindful of our own interactions online, but also what others post about us. This could include images we are tagged in on social media or even what comes up when someone searches our name online.
Future employers, coworkers, students, and parents will have access to information about us before meeting us in person, so it is imperative we are conscious of what they may find. Personally, I find this quite overwhelming because I am not 100% sure what my own digital footprint looks like. I am grateful to have learned more about digital identities through this first blog post, as it has made me more informed and aware of how my online presence could impact my future career opportunities.
Another point I really appreciated was your discussion about online communities possibly posing a threat to in-person interactions. I especially notice this in younger people who have constant access to digital devices. Face-to-face interactions are essential for building confidence and comfortability when navigating everyday life. It is a life skill that seems to be becoming increasingly rare, as many people turn to their phones and online communities instead of forming connections in person.
I also think this shift is starting to impact education, so I am eager to learn more about how we can embrace advancing technology while still protecting students from building a reliance on the internet.
Thanks again for your post, it was a very engaging read.
-Katie