Month: January 2023

Hello Nick,
I really enjoyed reading your second blog post! I liked how you talked about how a digital identity isn’t just one person but can be an organization, program, or device used for authentication. I think this is important because when many people think of digital identity, they think of it as a single person, but it could be multiple people. I also liked how you pointed out that many people have two social media accounts for professional and personal use. I also included this in my blog as well. You did a really good job of bringing up the point that nothing is wrong with having co-workers on your personal account, but if you do you should ensure that you are not making any of your co-workers uncomfortable about what you post.

Hello Wanqin,

I really enjoyed reading your blog post, it was very insightful! I really liked how you mentioned that digital identities help bring more security and convenience for people. I think that this connects very well with COVID-19, as many people had to sign documents but because of how it easy it is to use technology people were able to do so. More importantly like you mentioned it was secure for people to do this because there are ways to conduct identification, which is really important for making sure it is the right account and preventing theft.

What is a digital identity?

A digital identity like Eric Stoller (0.25) said is like your footprint on the web. It’s something that is traceable and has good and bad benefits. Some of the good benefits are that it makes it easier to promote ourselves, employers might look you up on social media and get to know more about you than just what they would have found out from an interview. The downside is that employers learn more about you, if you do not ensure that you accurately portray how you want to display yourself on social media you could lose your job or not get hired because of it.

Your digital identity is an accumulation of your presence on the internet it includes both things that you post as well as things that other people have posted of you. Everything that has been accumulated on your digital identity is usually pretty easy to find even if it is on a private account. I googled my name just to see what would pop up and unsurprisingly my Instagram account was the first thing to pop up. However, there were some things that I had forgotten that I have even done that popped up like a podcast I recorded in 2020, a Prezi that I had made in 2019, and photos of me that are linked to my parent’s Twitter accounts. This just goes to show the impact of digital identity, and even if you forgot you even posted something it might be one of the first things that pop up when you google your name.

How do personal versus professional approaches to digital identity affect social media use?

I find especially with today’s social media, these two overlap substantially. Just reflecting on writing my Digital Identity exercise, I point out that I am always cautious of what I post because of the saying the internet lives forever. Once something is posted it is near if not impossible to entirely remove something, I have seen ways to access your old Instagram bios (yes, ones that have been written almost 10 years ago) just by accessing your own account history.  This could affect your professional social media usage because everyone has access to what you have posted even if it is on a personal account. Additionally, most co-workers follow each other on social media and not just on professional accounts but also on personal accounts. Due to this, your personal posts can easily affect how your co-workers perceive you and may make work situations uncomfortable, especially if you are not thinking before you post online.

How do digital identities converge in networked publics- what are the impacts and benefits?

Digital identities definitely have some big benefits in the networked public, it helps to set the tone of how certain people interact. Obviously, when interacting online with your friends and family you can open up more and express yourself and be more informal. However, in a business setting a digital identity allows you to highlight what you can offer other businesses if they were to hire you and allows you to promote yourself. This only works if you have two separate accounts which is not always practical. Some people might have one account that is personal and is private so only they can dictate who gets to see it. Whereas others might just have a business account that is public, but they are careful about what they post.

I would say with how big of an increasingly social media sites have become in the last 10/20 years that it is something that is relatively new, and something that people need to get educated on. Although digital identities help most people they could be detrimental to others. This is why it is important, especially for post-secondary students to receive training about what they should and shouldn’t share online so that their careers are not harmed.

Can a digital wallet provide trust in networked publics?

I think that the digital wallet especially during Covid-19 has helped a lot of businesses and people. The digital wallet allowed people easier ways to sign forms along with easier banking which helped to limit people’s in-person interactions. There is a fine line however with having a digital wallet and the country intervening and violating privacy rights. This is important however at this point there have been many laws put into place that ensure that the country does not violate these laws. A huge argument was about the effect of vaccine passports, these helped to ensure people were protected from the Covid-19 virus, and in return, they could do certain things that others who were not vaccinated could not do. This allowed the country to see how many people were approximately vaccinated to give them a better idea as to how protected the country is and to also see when the appropriate time would be to lift public health restrictions. This helped the overall safety of the country, and allowed them to find out an accurate percentage of who was vaccinated just by registration numbers and not by accessing personal information. Additionally, in terms of banking many banks have special software systems, as well as duo authorization that ensures that their clients are protected. I do agree that sometimes when using a digital wallet you have to be cautious of the information you provide, but for the most part when they are asking about personal information like where you live, it is used to ensure that this is the right person using the device, or a way to contact someone if something ends up going wrong.

References

Stoller, Eric. “Eric Stoller- What is Digital Identity?” Youtube, uploaded by University of Derby, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0RryRbJza0

Hello Jacky Li,

I agree that many online networks pose the threat of scams. I think that this is
especially important in networking as well, since nothing is more frustrating than when you are waiting for a text or email from someone and you receive a scam email. I think this poses a big threat in risks of public communication because, like you said, even if you have never shared your number or email on social media platforms, there are still numerous ways people can access your information. This is not only scary for us as individuals but also poses a big threat to businesses that might be trying to promote themselves through social media networking and face the risk of privacy issues.

Hello Cyci,

Thank you for opening up and sharing about ASD. Your blog has definitely opened up my mind about how I interpret networking. I never thought about the different scripts involved in networking but it is such a good point, because their is as you mentioned different ways we act on social media towards people we know and people we don’t know. These scripts also play a huge role in how we benefit from networking, for example if you are doing something for work you are way more likely to have more people to collaborate if you follow the scripts of networking in a business setting ( i.e. being respectful, asking for help).

Hello everyone,

As a current student at UVIC whenever I heard someone talking about networking, I had always assumed that it was a term predominately just for business students. After doing the readings this week, I am happy to say that I understand networking better and can see how networking is extremely important for business students and why it is important for all majors and for all people.

I understand now that personalized learning networks are not just people we encounter regularly, but also people we reach out to for collaboration on ideas, ways to get input on ideas, and many more interactions.  Using social media to network allows us to have many different options to reach out to people and for certain interactions.  With emerging social media, I have noticed that there are certain platforms for specific kinds of networking. Twitter is more specific for finding out news or any topics that might be trending in the news.  Facebook has more family networking but also is better for larger groups of people so you can gather communities and interact with people in your neighborhood or city, or with people who have similar concerns or questions as you.  However, in my opinion, the best way to network using social media seems to be LinkedIn, they provide you with contacts you might know based on your education history and people who have similar jobs or majors as you. This allows a quick way to ask for collaboration on ideas, to find out new technology in your career, and to learn new things. The way I understand it to network using social media is to use social media to your advantage and an easy way to improve your networking skills. What do you think it means to network using social media?

I think we are motivated to participate in networked publics because of how frequently the world is changing. With the change of Covid we ourselves were motivated to network I feel like for the sake of human communication. As life progressed back to normal businesses and jobs started to see the benefit and motivated people to participate more in networked publics. However, working at a not-for-profit organization I have seen firsthand how once you start networking it is easier to maintain and motivates people more to network since they have seen firsthand how it benefits themselves. Have you noticed any particular ways you have been motivated to participate in networked publics?

I feel that for the most part, Gen z has had the benefit of growing up with technology in numerous ways one of which is the education we got in being safe while online. This included only talking to people you know, never telling people where you live online, etc. but with online networking, it is a little tougher. We interact with people online every day that we don’t know, for example, in this class I have never met any of you in person just online. However, this might seem unsafe online I know all of you are students at the University of Victoria, and that I am not at any risk, but I actually benefit because this allows me a way to network with new people. I can learn new things from people in this class, I can ask you questions to get a different viewpoint and interact in many other ways. Yes, there are privacy concerns in public communications that pose a risk, and they are really important to consider, however, if we are able to benefit from public communications without any risks or if proper precautions are put in place, then we should use networking to our benefit.