Those who know me and have sat around for long enough to hear me rant about social networking sites will know that I don’t, on principal, like them.
Personally, I feel a little uneasy about having so much personal information out on the web about me. And recently I have begun to think about the ‘digital footprint’ that we all leave behind. Emails, blog postings, social network sites, events, wall postings. Every piece of information we place on the internet will be kept in some form forever. If you don’t believe me then just look at Google’s mission statement.
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Every piece of information you upload to the internet falls under this category and Eric, Larry and Sergei will do whatever they can to make it ‘accessible and useful’.
The reality is, unless we want to become a digital hermit, we can’t escape the fact that we will leave a footprint behind. What we have to do is ensure it is a positive one.
In the posting Six Productivity Tips to use Social Media, the Academic Productivity Blog gives some useful hints on how to leverage social networks to your benefit.