September Refresher
Image courtesy of UBC Library Communications
A new school year is upon us, and with it all the resolutions that we hope to tackle before the next eight months sneak by. This term, in addition to hitting the gym, adopting better study habits, and cramming in 8 hours of sleep a night (yeah right), the Digital Tattoo team challenges you to take control of your digital identity!
Not sure where to start? We’ve compiled four easy steps to help you be digitally savvy this term:
1. Double (and triple) check your Facebook privacy settings.
Are you tired of your mom commenting on all of your status updates? Worried that your boss might uncover some ‘colourful’ photos from last week’s Pit Night? Keeping Facebook information private is by no means an easy task. There always seems to be some new feature or service that puts you on the public radar and makes it easier for others to access your personal information. Since Facebook privatization is constantly changing, it is important to be informed of such changes and to review and adjust your settings accordingly. To help keep your private information private, check out these easy steps to privacy management.
2. Revisit & revamp all of your profiles.
Now that you’ve updated your privacy settings, it’s time to dig deep into your social media past and freshen up your online image! Whether this means terminating unwanted profiles, updating existing information across current accounts, or simply writing a new post to share with friends, it is up to you to actively maintain your online identity. Think critically about the image you wish to portray and ensure that the content you are sharing is in line with this overarching goal. Keeping profiles and connections up-to-date is especially important for those who are trying to develop a professional brand or e-portfolio for potential employers.
3. Get organized.
From Twitter to Vine to Instagram to Tumblr to Facebook, the sheer number of online social platforms can be very overwhelming. To make your life easier, make use of social media management tools, such as TweetDeck and Buffer, to compile and consolidate multiple accounts in a single browser. Not only will these user friendly tools save you time and clicks, they’ll also ensure that all of your profiles remain uniform and make sharing a breeze!
4. Stay informed!
Online trends and services are constantly shifting and it can be difficult to stay on top of the latest updates across multiple platforms. Rather than be deterred from online participation, stay informed by subscribing to social media and technology blogs, such as Digital Life or Mashable Social Media. Don’t forget to share what you’ve learned with your friends!
This September, the Digital Tattoo team challenges you to create and maintain a positive digital identity by practicing the digital smarts listed above. Be sure to check our blog for more tips and tricks for being digitally savvy this term!
Are you cautious about what you share online? When was the last time you double checked your privacy settings? Do you have social profiles that you’ve neglected?
Reclaim Hosting
Is the convenience of the modern web crippling our understanding of it? Jim Groom and Tim Owens of Reclaim Hosting believe that it may be. In an era of Tumblr, Twitter and other easy to use micro-blogging tools, many students have no idea of the inner workings of a website. The aim of Reclaim Hosting is to provide a place to not only create their digital identity but control its future. Many people rely on hosted sites to create a digital footprint. Think of all the hard work and maintenance it takes to create a positive identity on Facebook and Twitter. Although unlikely, those sites could disappear at any time destroying millions of online identities in the process. Creating your own domain alleviates that risk but can be expensive which is where Reclaim Hosting comes in.
The project will provide free hosting for interested students and will assist universities and their students to create their own hosted websites provides the opportunity to play around with coding and web designed without the prepackaged themes that user are required to use. Reclaim Hosting isn’t asking its users to code from scratch instead, it hopes that students will take advantage of open source software like WordPress.
Interested in setting up your own domain name? The pilot program is set to begin on August 15th. Need more convincing before you jump into the world of domain ownership? Read this Wired blog post about the University of Mary Washington and the ideas behind the birth of the project . Remember the URL is key to a successful digital portfolio (DTLINK). Having your own domain shows future employers that you have the technical savvy to match your robust resume.
Some examples of UBC students who have created a “domain of their own” includes Ivan Yastrebov, who created his own domain to show off his photography at www.ivanyastrebov.com. Another example of an excellent student created domain name is www.ahmadrezafarsaei.com. Which is created by PhD student Ahmadreza Fa to showcase his tutorials, resume and published works. Both of these websites future their creators digital identity by promoting their personal brand. By using their full names as their website domain, they can create and control the first thing future employers see when they Google their name.
Would you create your own domain name? What are the benefits of of creating your own domain instead of using hosting tools? Disadvantages?
Events
There are no sessions or workshops currently scheduled for this week.
Summer Unplugged
Image via Pixabay user OpenIcons
The internet may be the invention with the greatest impact on the millennial generation. It sits in our pockets and on our desks, it allows us to connect to friends all over the globe and access the world’s greatest library in a few clicks. If the internet is the defining tool of our generation, why would anyone want to cut it from their life? How much time does the average university student spend online? A 2009 study by Harris Interactive showed that students “spend an average of 12 hours each day engaged with some type of media”. It’s safe to say that with the recent boom in smart phone use those numbers have risen. It has become increasingly common to spend every waking moment connected to the internet via smartphone. This can create a loss of focus on the other tasks which make up an millennial life.
A study conducted by students at the University of Maryland learned that students tend to spend more online time on distractions (texting, social media and watching online media) then they did working on course work. They decided to spend a brief 24 hours without any online media. While students’ options on the results were mixed, everyone involved could agree that was much more difficult than they could have imagined. One student was quoted as saying, “Honestly, this experience was probably the single worst experience I have ever had”. Other students focused on the positives which include more physical exercise and in person conversations. Others simply thought the best part of the experiment was when it was all over.
Would you be willing to give up all devices for 24 hours? A single day isn’t a great length of time nevertheless; the students who took part experienced Phantom Ringing, a feeling of missing out and boredom. We here at Digital Tattoo challenge everyone to unplug for one day. If nothing else you’ll know what you’re missing.
Are you addicted to the internet? Could you replicate this study?
Do you have anything to hide?
Credit: Lloyd Trufelman
Even as Facebook hits it’s one millionth advertiser, the worlds largest social network is shrinking in a key demographic, teens. TIME writes that teens and young adults are using the social network less and less. Twitter and Instagram are growing in numbers and many teens prefer using texting apps Vine and Snapchat as alternatives to social networks . What is the reason behind this demographic shift? Young adults want more privacy. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that teens “have become acutely aware that anything they post online might be analyzed by parents, friends or colleges; 57% of them have chosen not to post something because they thought it might reflect badly on them in the future”. This is good news, young adults are becoming more aware of the impact their digital identity has on their lives.
While young adults have a growing concern overs social networking privacy settings they also are spending more time then ever on smartphones. According to the Pew Internet and American Live survey 56% of all US adults have smartphones. These rising numbers mean that more data is being gathered from mobile devices than ever before. The amount data is being collected by one individual smart phones many be more than the average person suspects.
Malte Spitz, a German politician sued his cell phone provider for access to the metadata they collected on his device over the period of six months. The amount of information would make big bother unconformable. Not only did they kept information on the number of calls, SMS messages and time spent on the internet but the location of the device at any given time. The data is so exact that the newspaper Zeit Online put together a real time map in which you can follow Spitz’s location down to street level.
Cedit : zabou.me
Why is it that young adults are growing more aware of the issues with social network privacy and not of the issues surrounding metadata collected by their cell phone? Is it that the impact of say a boss viewing a personal tweet is stronger than a government surveillance program like PRISM? PRISM is an American surveillance program operated by the NSA. It aggregates data from personal telephone records as well as accesses information from the servers at Google, Apple, Facebook, Skype and many others. This large scale program can seem likely to impact individuals which causes apathy among the millions affected. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Wall Street Journal technology reporter believes that this apathy could be dangerous. In her “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit, Valentino -DeVries wrote:
“One response is that you might have more to hide than you think, and you might not even know right now that it’s something you want to hide…But what if the surveillance turns to target … say … people with Communist leanings? Or people of some other political persuasion deemed to be dangerous. We did have that whole “Red Scare” thing. One of my colleagues, Geoff Fowler, wrote a story about some students who joined a LGBT choir at college. The choir administrator signed them up for the Facebook group, and a notice went out to their families without their approval. It created a terrible situation for them. So … did they have something to hide? Yes and no.” – WSJ Blogs
Canadians might also feel protected from the PRISM s candle. Law professor Michael Geist warns us that there are more questions to be asked before Canadians get too comfortable., “Does this mean Canadian authorities are engaged in similar forms of surveillance? That Internet companies co-operate with Canadian authorities? That Canadian and U.S. authorities share information obtained through programs such as the Verizon meta-data program or PRISM? That Canadians are targeted by the U.S. programs?” The current system of law would suggest that all of these things are entirely possible. The way current laws stand any or all of these questions could be true.
Do you agree that we as a society are more likely to be worried about small scale privacy on social media than government collection of metadata? Why might this be so?
