The contrast between my 20-something internet era versus my 30-something internet era are in every respect different and is the most surprising to me out of my entire digital story. In my twenties, more specifically early twenties, I remember social media being the “fad”. If it wasn’t posted, it didn’t happen. MySpace was popular during the awkward stages between middle school and high school. Facebook took over in my high school years; yes, I, too, lied and said I was in college to be able to initially use it. Instagram consumed my college and beyond years. I posted everything on social media; what I was doing, who I was with, where I was, who my friends were, who I wasn’t really fond of, subliminal messages via memes, etc. Thankfully, those days have been left deep in the past. I think this is extremely important to note, being that how a younger me viewed the internet and social media as opposed to how an older me views the internet and social media, is also part of my digital story.
Nowadays, compared to my peers, I keep things pretty low key when it comes to the internet and social media. Aside from my LinkedIn account, which is meant to be used as a professional networking site, many people would find it difficult to identify me using other internet platforms – on purpose. Along with removing personal pictures and no longer using pictures of myself on avatars, I very rarely even use my legal name. I went from someone who was overexposed on the internet, to someone who is almost unidentifiable. It was during the lockdown during the pandemic that I had decided to remove myself from being easily accessible via the internet. Even with all of the privacy settings offered by social media and different sites, I decided to start treading lightly when it came to the internet. At one point, I remember having close to two thousand followers on social media and removed almost every single person. By the time I was finished, I had roughly 150 followers and even then, some were debatable. I figured that if I wouldn’t want to greet those people if I were to run into them in person, why give them access to my life in general.
Now, more than ever, I believe that both my internet identity and my offline identity are one in the same. I am a very low key, mind my own business kind of person, and I believe I reflect those same mannerisms online. I appreciate the ability to only share bits and pieces of my personal life here and there, when I want to, and no longer oversharing every aspect of my daily life. I’ve actually found that it irritates me when others post multiple times a day, everyday, about their whereabouts. Again, none of my business and to each their own, but to me, that’s senseless and could be a little dangerous. While Googling myself, I was dreading that I’d find old accounts that would show me wearing ridiculous outfits, or partying, or maybe making some childish or crude gestures. Thankfully, the only page I found was an old music profile from a website called Mixcloud that was last accessed seven years ago. Yes, I listened to the one music share I had on the page and no, I did not enjoy it.
I find that digital media is extremely sensitive. Anything you share via the internet has the potential to reach places you did not intend it to. Anything can be taken out of context and could negatively affect your future. What we share today could be used against us tomorrow, even if we didn’t mean for it to. The numerous modalities in digital media makes it difficult to keep up with our content as well. Unless someone is a meticulous account keeper, many of us had abandoned old pages and accounts and made new ones due to forgetting passwords and usernames. All of that old content is still visible on the internet, even if we lose access to it and forget it exists. Since I grew up in the age where social media was becoming popular and so many different platforms were created in such a short amount of time, everyone I knew, myself included, were nonstop making accounts to a great deal of websites trying to keep up with the new trend. In my time of being a social media user, I believe I might have made roughly four different Facebook pages because I’d forget my login information and I know for sure that there is a Youtube page that I made as a middle schooler that still exists and I have no access to, nor any recollection of the username and how to find it.
Seeing firsthand how digital media can impact the average person’s life, especially now that content and posts are faster to go viral than ever before, this is concerning due to the fact that once you create a post or write an email, despite of any privacy settings you may have to protect yourself, there is no guarantee that your content won’t fall into the wrong hands. Digital media goes beyond the post; it’s the sharing, the interactions, the commenting, the likes, the screenshots. It’s exceptionally important for me to maintain control of my digital identity by restricting what I allow the internet to have access to.
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