The results I received from these searches were a mix of expected and unexpected findings.
Currently, I am not an avid user of social media for personal reasons and as a result of articles and research I have done on the impact social media can have on mental health. However, I realize from my search results that my past use of social media was still very much accessible and "alive" on the web, and that other sources than myself had influence over my digital presence.
My first searches were focused on website results. I received similar results when both searching logged into Google and searching as a guest, yet the hierarchy of the results were a little different. I believe this is most likely due to certain filters enabled by my school district when I searched logged into my account. My YouTube, Pinterest, and teacher webpage were all part of the top results in both searches. These are sites I expected to show up in my digital footprint as I have used them all somewhat recently and frequently. It was eye-opening thinking from a work perspective how these three showed up together and the possible implications that could have if an employer, student, or parent decided to "Google" me. I use YouTube mostly as a professional resource to upload videos for my students, yet it also tracks anything I have watched for both personal and professional reasons. This is similar to my Pinterest account. While I use Pinterest to find teaching inspiration, I also use it for personal interests as well. Regardless, the pins and boards all populate together. It just reminds me of the care I need to take when using accounts for both professional and personal purposes, and I may need to consider making separate accounts for each. It isn't so much that what I am using these sites for personally is controversial or negative, but more that my personal beliefs, interests, tastes, bias, etc. do not necessarily need to be paired up next to my professional interests and philosophies.
The search results that surprised me where links to websites I had not used in years or perhaps never, yet somehow I had an account. Linked In was one result I was not expecting because I do not remember ever signing up for this resource or using it. I did some digging around to see if I could figure out when the account was created, but was unsuccessful. My Twitter account also showed up as a top result despite the fact that I have not used it since 2014, and even then I only ever tweeted or retweeted a handful of times. A TikTok account I created during the pandemic also showed up as a top result. I found this to be strange since there was only one video ever created on it, and it was never used again. This was also true for a Spelling City account.
Among the photos and videos, I found a very similar theme. Most were concerning infant swimming resource (ISR) lessons due to my advocacy of childhood drowning after my daughter tragically passed away in 2019. One of the webpage results from a news outlet also tied into this theme which made me realize how easy it is for others to find out personal details about a tragedy in my life. There were also photos from the obituaries of my daughter and grandmother, a blog post by my sister from 2011, a teacher appreciation award from 2016, and a Go Fund Me campaign that I donated to.
There were three take-aways I had from this assignment. First, I realize that the majority of my digital footprint is made up from or tied to my profession as a teacher. Most of my social media usage is linked to teaching resources and ideas, and several photos populated from school events. Second, I was able to draw the conclusion that my digital footprint is considerably smaller than many. Perhaps so many older sources of information populated in the top results because there wasn't many results to begin with. Finally, I realized my digital footprint can be and is impacted by others and the ways they tag me or share information about me. My school website, my sister's blog, and news outlets all returned in my searches. While I was not the author of any of this content, they still contributed to my presence on the web.
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