My Digital Footprint

        Upon watching the video on digital footprints, I became very interested to see what would come up on myself. So after the video was done, I decided to do some detective work. After that, I was interested to see what would come up on others. I was surprised at some, horrified at others, and overall entertained by what I found. I could have spent hours looking people up. But alas, it’s Sunday and beautiful outside. I need to unplug eventually and enjoy some sunshine. So regretfully, I closed down Google (after one quick more search).  

          Upon Googling myself, I was slightly humored, slightly awed, and a little more leery about what I put out there. One of the first things to come up of course was my uncle’s obituary. I was expecting this as he had just passed away a couple months ago. What I wasn’t expecting is to find an old court case. I had taken someone to court over an unpaid bill 15 years ago and somehow it still shows up as one of the first things. I also bought something for a PTO fundraiser and that was there as well. When I Google my married name, I was pleased to see UTTC’s Honor Roll come up. However, my age, my address, my field of work is still out there for anyone to see, as is this blog.

          I Googled my son next. He is only 14 years old and I wasn’t expecting much of anything. 5 years ago, he was in a concert choir called, Jubilate. This came up as did his old Cross Country run times. It also has what school he attends which doesn’t sit all that great with me. So we had a talk about digital footprint and I was happy to learn that he has been taught this in school quite a bit. He is in the habit of Googling himself and is fully aware of the repercussions of having your name out there.  

            The funniest was checking the images associated with our names. With my name, a picture of my dog showed up as did a photo associated with the Dakota Zoo. There was also a photo of many cars my ex-husband refurbished, along with a comical horse butt. When I checked my married name, I was slightly horrified to see a picture of my least favorite brother-in-law staring back at me. My son’s was just as entertaining. His images were filled with ferrets, a picture his friend made him 4 years ago, and horrifyingly one random photo of Hitler.

         This was a great eye-opener for both of us. I hope to continue to monitor this and be aware of the things that are put out there.