What is a Digital Footprint?

Some of you must be wondering, what is a digital footprint? A digital footprint is basically what we look like in the internet. For example, your digital footprint can be discovered from social media, to  educational purposes.

You must be also wondering why it is important. Are there any photos of you that are explicit online? Are there any photos or information that you do not want to share with your family members? Do you wonder if your information is being shared without your permission? If you are worried about the previous questions, then consider tracking your digital footprint now.

I would like to share my own digital footprint. I am a private person, despite the social media that I use. Upon searching my name on Google, there weren't any results. This is because I do not use my real name in social media, except Facebook. I prefer using my nicknames since it makes me more comfortable. But even if I use my real name in social media, it would still come off as basically nothing since there are only a few posts shared over a number of years since I barely post anything. The most personal thing I found was my friend's post when we all wore costumes in Halloween. There is nothing explicit or negative at all as my digital footprint. But upon finding a particular post on Facebook that I posted before, it left me kind of surprised. 

On February of 2018, I posted a GIF of myself with a filter of a cat and shared it publicly so anyone could see since there is no harm. It was supposed to be a funny and cute meme since some people that I know are very conscientious about their weight. So, one having a double chin, showed it shamelessly in social media. But upon seeing the post a couple months later, in April, it racked a lot more views than I expected. 

I was kind of surprised since there were only six people that liked it, but has 56 views as I am posting this post. Note that I am a private person and very picky about the people that I am friends with, so the views are already over 3/4 of the friends that I have! I underestimated how many people actually look at other people's posts.

Overall, I am not worried about my digital footprint. As you can see the chart at the top, most of the websites I use are for educational purposes. WB Games Community and ourWorld are just added to fill the gaps since I do not use a lot of websites. I haven't even used ourWorld for a couple years now. So, this proves that I am not a tech savvy person and not really involved in social media. Not even in real life. I tend to leave a space for most of the people I meet so not only that I am rarely involved in social media, but also in reality.