I've noticed a trend toward educating students on the notion of a permanent digital footprint. Often, this leads to a conversation about personal branding. Do this and don't do that. Craft this image to make yourself look great for an employer. Don't get caught saying or doing anything dumb at sixteen. These conversations are often tied to a series of events where a kid acted immature online and felt the full wrath of a zero tolerance adult world as a result. That girl holding a drink at a party becomes the future employee that no one wants to hire. That boy that insulted another boy online becomes the workplace bully that nobody wants to hire. This bothers me for a few reasons. First, I'm bothered by the message that we are supposed to be putting a brand out to the world instead of acting like ourselves in social spaces. For all the talk of authentic learning, I find it odd that many educators are essentially asking kids to be anything but authentic in digital spaces. Often this message, crafted in fear, actually backfires. It becomes the "Just Say No" phenomenon. Kids have become desensitized to the fear mongering of adults, because they've seen how rare the worst case scenarios actually are. Suddenly, that post about getting blazed no longer seems like a potential danger. I'm also bothered that the conversation is almost always about what kids should do to fix their digital footprint rather than asking if maybe adults are overreacting a bit. The digital footprint conversation often sends the message that kids can't mess up, act immature and grow into adulthood. I find it really disturbing given the reality that so many of us did stupid things in our youth. The conversation almost never veers into the question of whether or not corporations should be allowed to pry into the private life going all the way back to youth. Is that really the kind of power we want to grant corporations? If so, I fear that we're heading into a dangerous place of plutocracy in the social sphere. I would rather see the conversations include questions like:
- Who do you want to be online?
- What ethics guide your interactions?
- How will you approach power structures in online spaces?
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