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Lexi Bowman

Ms. Hoffman

Reading and Writing for the College Bound

17 November 2016

Future Impact of Ones Digital Footprint

In the past ten years the usage of social media has risen drastically. Users now have the

capability of connecting with people from around the world, following celebrities, sending

picture of themselves to someone else, and posting items for everyone to see. An individual is

able to tweet at the president and a company can handle foreign affairs. The world has

progressed into a new, advanced era based on social media. Through the abundant amount of

advantages social networking brings, what often is overlooked how ones digital footprint can

create a false self, self sabotage, and lead to danger now and in the future.

Each person consists of their real self and their ideal self, and on social media it is this

persons choice to choose what one to display. More often than not the social media user parades

their ideal self, meaning that they choose to display how they think they should be and how they

believed they should be viewed; and avoid showing their real self, which is ones attributes,

characteristics, and personality (Green). This could be easily compared to wearing a mask

because the user is covering up who they really are, their real self, and only showing bits and

chunks of who they believe they should be. Conclusively, this masking is create a falsified self of

the user. Now taking a step back it is important to analyze why an individual feels the need to

falsify who they are online, and the answer may seem complex, but it is truly simple: self worth.

As one researcher points out, The steady influx of text messages, regular postings on social

networking sites, and number of likes and friends they have, for example, become the
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measures of childrens self-worth (Taylor). The social media user creates this personified

version of their ideal self in order to get the popularity they desire on social media, so that they

can satisfy their hunt for self-worth. They care more about receiving likes and followers than

being true to who they are. While this may seem harmless, it is actually destructing ones digital

footprint for the future. This false version of oneself allows others to create a false perception,

which can affect future jobs, internships, college acceptance, and even relationships. Therefore,

when creating an online profile of oneself, it is important to make sure it is as authentic and

represents the real self as much as possible in order to prevent falsification.

Suppose a college advisor is given the option to pick between two students applying for

the same college: one being mediocre but only has positivity on their social media and one who

is above average but has a great deal of crude remarks on social media, who would be picked?

While the question has no definite answer, this is becoming an arising problem for not just

college admission officers but employers too. Admission officers and employers are finding it

more common now to reject a candidate based on their social media accounts (Singer).

According to an article from the well known New York Times, More crucially for those trying to

get into college, 30 percent of the admissions officers said they had discovered information

online that had negatively affected an applicants prospects(Singer). This percentage is a prime

example of how easy it is for an admissions officer to find something negative online about an

applicant. Additionally, it is becoming less looked down upon for colleges to look at an

applicants social media during the decision making process (Singer). When a candidate for a

college or a job is rejected based on their social media, it is no ones fault but themselves. Yet, it

is so easy to prevent self sabotage for the future. All one needs to do is be conscious about what
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they are putting online, and know the consequences that could occur, in order to protect their

digital footprint.

Over the course of ten years society has manipulated social media users into needing a

high amount of likes, friends, retweets, and posts online. Users are led to believe that they will be

more popular in the world if the can accumulate high numbers in each of these categories. To

accomplish this, social media users will put an abundant amount of material about themselves

online. A way users try to gain popularity is by tagging locations in their posts and ever offer

private information to become public. However, it is often overlooked the dangers that come

with this. In a recent CNN report, a middle school girl is describing her list of followers to

reporters. Theres actually a lot of people, she says, I have no idea who they are. But I just let

them follow me because the more the merrier (Riley 2). Social media users, in particular those

who are teenagers, are oblivious to how dangerous it is to allow anyone, even complete

strangers, to view your life. This oblivion has made it easier than ever before for users to fall

victim to predators online. For example, a freshman male from Virginia Tech made contact with

a thirteen year old female on a social media website, posing as someone much younger, and

when they met up he kidnapped and murdered the female (Riley 1). Although this is an extreme

incident, it is not uncommon to hear stories about someone not being who they said they were

online. In order for users to protect themselves online now and in the future, they need to be

aware of what they are posting, who they are allowing access to follow them, and eliminate the

idea that they have to be popular online.

Social media may have an abundant amount of positives to it, but with each positive

comes the discussed negatives: falsification, self sabotage, danger. It is important for users to be

smart while using social media, for if they arent whatever they post will be out there forever.
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Although it only may take a second to tweet something, it can take up to a lifetime to fix ones

digital footprint. Users need to make sure they arent falsifying themselves online, and making

everything about their real self not their ideal self. They need to be wary about those who are

higher up may see when looking at their social media accounts, and they need to make sure they

are protecting themselves from online dangers. With these three items used proactively, ones

digital footprint should remain untarnished in the future.

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Works Cited

Green, R. Kay. "The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online?" The
Huffington Post. N.p., 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Riley, Naomi Schaefer. "Don't Downplay the Dangers of Social Media to Kids." New York Post.
NYP Holding Inc, 07 Feb. 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.

Singer, Natasha. "They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets." The New York Times.
New York Times, 09 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2016.

Taylor, Jim. "Is Facebook Creating a False Self in Children?" Psychology Today. Sussex
Publishers, 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2016