Wow! Lots of learning happened this week! We learned about digital footprints and net neutrality. I had never heard of those two concepts before so this was an important week.
Digital footprint is everything you are leaving behind every time you use the internet. It was mind-blowing for me to learn how every time you search for something, there are companies tracking that information to use with their marketing strategies (Koughan & Rushkoff, 2014). I had noticed something weird about it. Every time I searched something, I started receiving sponsored content about it on Instagram and Facebook. I don’t like it at all! I don’t like feeling like I am being observed all the time. All the videos related to this topic were just crazy! To think that they are storing all of that information from you to sell it or use it to show you what they want is just crazy! Many people have a lot of social media apps. I personally use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. Some of them are for personal reasons and some of them are for my job. They are very useful but I have learned this week how you need to be very cautious when using them. Those companies are probably collecting information from you to use with marketing purposes. Besides, companies are using those profiles from you to know about you before hiring you. You want to keep a professional online image. For example, I just wrote an article and they asked me for my Twitter handle. I know they were checking that I can be a good role model when they publish what I wrote.
Net neutrality was very interesting as well. It is about the internet providers giving access to it without favoritisms or blockings (C-SPAN, 2015). After I did some research, I got confused because it seems that after 2015, the net neutrality was repealed in 2017 (Kang, 2017). I wonder if that is why we receive information about certain sponsored products. I think that I am going to do more research about this topic. I found something about the states creating laws about this but I want to know more about how it affects us. I understand that there are economic interests with internet. But students should have a reliable access to the internet where they could trust the sources because there are no biases. Without net neutrality teachers need to educate students to learn that there might be a different point of view other than what is showed and to just keep looking for more information to compile a complete picture of what they need.
This week I have come to the conclusion that the internet is a great invention but it can become creepy. You have access to unlimited resources and you can learn so much with it. But at the same time, you are being watched and you can be manipulated. Besides, it is crucial for everyone to maintain a positive footprint. It becomes your presentation stamp so you need to learn to use it for your benefit (Common Sense Education, 2014).
References
C-SPAN. (2015, February 26). FCC chair Tom Wheeler on open internet rules (C-SPAN) [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfVR0C2HHSI
Common Sense Education. (2014, September 4). Oversharing: Think before you post [Video fie] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyjd73tUXig
Kang, C. (2017, December 14). F.C.C repeals net neutrality rules. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-repeal-vote.html
Koughan, F. & Rushkoff, D. (2014). Generation like [Video file] Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/generation-like/
