Online Presence

Unlike my mom or dad I grew up with social media and it has always been a significant part of my life. I remember when I was 12 years old I created my own Facebook page. At that point most everyone in my middle school had a Facebook account and so I began to friend the other kids in my class. We used to all post on each other's timelines, post about middle school drama, make relationship statuses when we dated someone new, and constantly message each other after school. Now thinking about it, this was the beginning of my digital footprint. I regret having a Facebook account so young. My embarrassing messages from middle school will always be in someone else’s inbox and while I tried to delete most embarrassing stuff from my younger days on social media there are still comments that I may have made on other people’s wall that I’ll never be able to find or take down. (Pictured below middle school dramatics 2012)

My 2012 Post About A Boy I Liked

In 14 year old Sonia Bokhari’s article, Why I’m 14 and Quit Social Media, she writes about her experience with social media at a young age and why she chooses to avoid it now. When Sonia finally turned 13 she joined Facebook and Twitter only to discover that her mother and sister had been exposing pieces of her private life she had not wanted shared with the internet. She writes about how mom’s should not invade their child’s privacy on social media platforms without having a conversation with them first. When she was finally old enough to join social media a digital identity had been set for her already by her mother. This makes me think of famous celebrities with young children. For example Kylie Jenner, one of the most famous influencers of today, is constantly posting her 2 year old daughter Stormi on all of her platforms. We the public have watched so many intimate moments of Kylie and her daughter from her birth to her first words. The public watches Stormi grow up through the eye of Kylie’s social media. By the time Stormi is a teenager it’s almost invasive that the whole world will have her photos and videos from the span of her life all over the internet. When you google 2 year old Stormi Webster thousands of pictures and videos are quick to appear (pictured below). 

What Happens When You Google 2 YR Old Stormi (Daughter of Kylie Jenner & Travis Scott)

Sonia became so anxious with her digital footprint that she deactivated all of her accounts and chose to stay off of social media for now she recommends that others take caution when using social media. I have to take more precaution with my own accounts. I have an Instagram account that is public so anyone can view my photos. I often post photos at the beach and tag my location which I know can be dangerous. This summer my sister had a scary occurrence because of an Instagram photo with a tagged location. She posted a photo at the beach and tagged our beach community, this means that anyone in that area can see the photograph. A week later she was at the grocery store and this man came up to her asking for her phone number after she declined. He kept asking her for it and out of fear she said yes. The man handed her his phone to put her number in and already her name was filled out before she had even told him her name. We later discovered that the man had interacted with the photo that she had tagged the location in and that’s how he knew her name and who she was. (pictured below - what happens when you tag a location)

Rockefeller Center Location Page

We have to take more precaution with what we are posting on social media. Facebook was created in 2004 and Instagram in 2010. As one of the earliest generations to grow up with social media my age group did not know all of the dangers of social media and that data that it could collect. Now the youngest generation who has more knowledge about what these platforms are capable of they have the tools to learn more and practice safe internet usage. 

“We are also the next generation of engineers and innovators, and we’re well aware of how much worse data mining and privacy could get if people continue to be apathetic.”

Sources:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90315706/kids-parents-social-media-sharing

https://www.fastcompany.com/90359992/an-ad-tech-pioneer-on-where-our-data-economy-went-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it