Digital Footprint

 Our social media use, especially that of my generation who grow up with it since we were little, many times completely forget or do not acknowledge the potential risk we put ourselves under. We are not well aware of how our digital footprint, a data point left on the internet from our usage, can create an invasion of our privacy. We leave behind a digital footprint in anything and everything we do online so it is vital that fully understand what exactly our digital footprint is and how it may track our every movement online. 

Instagram is my primary source of social media. Ever since first getting the app in 2016, I have pretty much used it daily ever since to reconnect with friends and look up interesting stories. Starting last year, however, I have changed my account to a public business account so that I can hopefully better market myself as a filmmaker by posting various films I have made. By having my account be public, most of my followers are people that I do not even know. I had do block several of them recently when I found them to be scammers or hackers. It is a very scary thing to have happen but is a part of what happens when you give over too much control to a social media app. 

Though I got Snapchat relatively recently (about two years ago), my use of the social media app has been immense. I use the app everyday to communicate with friends and have even had to use it when communicating with other group members in a group project. Though I use it daily, I only ever use it to communicate with my close friends. I never use it to connect with people I don't know and have only ever posted to my story one time.  

 I use YouTube a lot whenever I'm bored (which is a lot) to look up interesting or funny videos to entertain myself. Surprisingly, I actually am on YouTube more than any of the other social media apps and try to use my YouTube channel to further my filmmaking career by also posting my short films to it. YouTube has made it easy to reach out to fellow filmmakers and share with them my own work. 

Overall, though I only use these three social media sites, I do now greatly fear for my privacy. Instagram and Snapchat both have my phone number, as well as my location, and YouTube has access to my email. All of these contacts were needed to create an account. Each of those are very personal contacts that I believe no one would want out in the open. Recently, after becoming a much more informed social media user, I have made myself more aware of what kind of power social media has over me in the contract of adhesion (something I did not even use to read before accepting). I have also realized that it is not just me at risk. Any of my friends and family members that are mentioned in any of my social media accounts can now also be tracked and/or targeted by people that would want to do them harm. 

The article by The Atlantic was deeply disturbing. I never knew an ad company could track a person's physical movement! It was very unsettling how far an ad agency would go to collect someone's data just so that they could give you an ad for something you may be interested in. I knew that our phones and social media presence gathered information on what kind of things we seemed interested in, but I never knew just how far it all truly went. 

Overall, though I may be uncomfortable with the amount of contact information I am required to give to my social media accounts, I do not think I have a purely unhealthy relationship to technology. I do not post personal things and only really use it to further my film career. I do not usually reach out to people who I do not know and keep my circle of those I do communicate with very small. I am extremely selective of what I post and do not rely on technology to determine my own self worth. If someone posts about going on an extravagant vacation, I do not become depressed that I am not taking part in something as fun. Social media has never affected my self worth and has never made me depressed due to any sort of comparison to anyone else. For whatever reason, I have always separated social media from my personal self and will continue to do so. 

Sources:

https://blog.infoarmor.com/individuals-and-families/whats-digital-footprint-why-does-it-matter-tips-protecting-data

https://www.simplilearn.com/real-impact-social-media-article

https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-instagrams-new-logo-2016-5

https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/put-snaps-map-snapchats-new-snap-map/