I have never been a big user or social media; as an electrician it was not particularly necessary and I did not need more than a status update to summarize my thoughts. As I enter the teaching profession I realize the need to overcome my hesitance around social media and establish a digital footprint.

I do not feel that social media has ever lived up to its promised and supposed benefits. Does anyone express themselves online with any confidence? It seems to me that social media has become a tool for judgement and harassment. If ever there was a tool uniquely unsuited to building consensus it would have to be something like X or Facebook.

Still, a digital footprint carries value. Professional connections are critical for any creative profession, and I believe teaching fits that category. Entering a field with notorious burn out also emphasizes the need to maintain social connections, a reminder that none of us are in this alone. Further, it provides many opportunities for shared professional learning and networking, a critical aspect of creative problem solving that we as a society have rightly been increasingly emphasizing.

This carries relevance for the classroom as well. I believe that communication skills and consensus building are crucial skills in the STEM fields (and every other field.) If I do not model this in my own life, treating it rather as a chore that I am compelled to complete, then that mindset will undoubtedly show in my classroom persona. I am a believer that all good human activity contains a social element, and this will be one expression of that belief.

At this point in blogging I looked up a YouTube video to see what others had to say.

What is a Digital Footprint? – YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQGq_FNBpE

LPUB Academic Center. (2021, August 14). What is a Digital Footprint? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQGq_FNBpE

And so I see my age (and probably my gender), because I completely forgot about the bad side of your digital footprint. I have never been Googled for a job, as an electrician I have only been interviewed and hired face-to-face. Here’s a fun fact: there’s a Quinn Hutson who plays hockey for Boston University, and on the Google front I am good. This has lit a fire for me to review all of my YouTube comments, however, and all my privacy settings, because I can absolutely imagine students seeing what they can dig up on their teacher.

Also, yeesh, I just checked my Google account and am staggered at how many things they turn on by default, up to and including skimming my phone for data.

Final update: my comments are not bad, I am confident in my footprint. On Facebook, just add your grandma as a friend, instant self policing.