Final post

The online world is a scaryly dangerous place to be but also a beautiful place. If you take part in the online world you are constantly exposed to things like identity theft, cyber crimes, cyberbullying, etc. Our online presence serves as our digital footprint, leaving traces of our lives spread over many platforms. 

My online footprint is widespread. As I grew up my friends began getting social media apps so I followed along doing the same thing. I got Instagram in 5th grade, which looking back is disgustingly young. Over time, I signed up for more social media platforms along with various other online sites. I tend to post pictures of my life. I share photos of my family, boyfriend, dog, vacations, and even photos at my school. This provides to whoever follows me the private details of my life, where I go to school, where I vacation, and what my people look like. I personally do not have a personal online website, my blogger is the online thing I have in that sense. 

The social media sites I use are Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. I put my life on them. I share personal events within my life with the thought my family I don't get to see in person can see my life through photos. I recently have been keeping my life more private as I've realized the dangers of the online world but the damage is already done.

Due to my own fault, a visitor glean could gain a decent amount of information to build on about me. You could find my birthday, family, my school, and where I live based off of the locations I take photos at. You could determine my beliefs based off of photos and accounts I like and follow or even repost. This is a crazy idea to think on because I never thought people could analyze me so effectively based off photos. 

Social media platforms along with other sites I have signed up for have all of my private information such as my phone number, email, birthday, address, etc. They have this information because it is all required to sign up to be able to use the platforms. 

Social media does have the ability to make people lonely, depressed, and isolated. These platforms connect us globally but also create challenges. Someone could endlessly scroll their feeds and compare themselves to people. This can make someone feel less than and even lonely. There is constant pressure to maintain a specific image on social media which can contribute to stress and anxiety if that persona lacks or does not match with your ideals.