BLOG#2- What Does My Digital Identity Look Like?

•  What is a digital identity?
•  How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?
•  How do digital identities converge in networked publics – what are the impacts and/or benefits?

Digital identity is what I present on the Internet. It includes all the content and sharing that I publish on the Internet. It is a manifestation of how I participate in the online community and treat others. Digital identity is also how I use digital tools to serve the benefit of myself and others. Digital identity is my footprint on the Internet, my works, blogs, and tweets that can be searched. Everything I do on the Internet represents my digital identity.

Being active on social media benefits both personal and professional purposes, provided that we create an image of a good work attitude in personal social situations. Many employers consider not only professional skills, but also hobbies and passions of prospective employees outside of work. Due to the widespread use of social media nowadays, people’s lives have become more transparent because the boundaries between work and career have become blurred. Many companies have realized the value of carefully understanding the personal life and hobbies of candidates before hiring employees. As long as we are careful not to post inappropriate or offensive content on our personal social media accounts and let your personality and interests shine, we can help employers understand your unique identity and determine how you fit into the company culture.
Personal accounts and professional accounts are not isolated. If we have two social accounts, one for work and one for private use for different purposes, we should use and speak with caution. Because if we only use professional accounts to establish contact with leaders and colleagues, they will still be able to find and view our private accounts. Even our private accounts may be pushed to them by social media. So, even if we have two accounts, we still have to be cautious.
Employers usually appreciate dedicated employees, and it’s no harm to like or share personal photos, such as family photos, insights, and news related to your favorite entertainment or other personal interests. However, we must avoid using extremist views or inappropriate descriptions of certain things. We should try not to post any content on personal or professional social media that is not suitable for bosses, colleagues, or corporate customers.
We used to be able to distinguish professional and personal lives more easily, but today these two areas of life are more and more integrated because of social media. Therefore, we need to weigh the pros and cons before merging professional and personal social media accounts. Both personal and professional digital identities have an impact on the use of social media.

The integration of digital identities in networked publics mainly relies on users’ personal social groups and business purposes. What kind of community activities users participate in and the use of digital identities will have different effects.

The benefits of digital identity are:
1. Greatly protect the privacy of users. The user can choose who has access to it.
2. Users can establish strong relationships with many people (such as bosses, colleagues, and customers).
3. Break down barriers in communication to improve user experience.
4. Participation in the online community is greatly improved.
5. Can strengthen teamwork and communication skills within the company.
6. Bring benefits to yourself and others.
7. Meet a lot of like-minded people.

The effects of digital identity are:
1. To a certain extent, the balance between life and work has been changed, and the two have merged.
2. No longer able to express their opinions completely freely, and will consider more.
3. Face the risk of fraud and identity theft.
4. The company’s investigation of social media may violate privacy rights.

More resources:

http://www.educationforhealth.net/article.asp?issn=1357-6283;year=2019;volume=32;issue=1;spage=33;epage=35;aulast=Jawed

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137405876_6

Digital Identities: Six Key Selves of Networked Publics