After talking about our personal learning networks last week, it’s important for us to examine how our digital identity takes shape as a result of our engagement with these personal learning networks.
Just like our own personal identities, our digital identity can be thought of as our personas online. Spracklen (2015) and Saira et al. (2019) highlight how such an identity can be constructed and maintained. Social media has been a great tool for doing this, as it can be clear an individual may operate in the workplace or other settings based on their social media profiles.
Eric Stoller (2016) defined digital identity as an identity that is composed of everything that a person does online. Whatever you post, share, and your overall presence online. The kind of things that you look at while you’re online, how you engage with these online platforms and interact with other all encompasses your digital identity.
Stoller likened it to the digital footprint that exists on the internet for you personal. Any work or publishing information that you share on the internet becomes part of this identity that follows you around. This can become almost like your personal brand, advertising potential employers or other stakeholders into understanding the kind of person that you are.
My digital identity is primarily house on social media platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn. My professional identity and work history is on LinkedIn and everyone is able to see this. My more personal life is on Instagram, which is private and only shared with close friends and families. This keeps my professional image separate from my personal image. What kind of digital identity do you have and what are the platforms that you use?
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