A digital identity is how you present yourself to others online, both in a controlled and uncontrolled manner. When thinking of digital identity, one’s online presence on platforms such as Instagram or Twitter allows you to share information how you want people to receive it. For example, sharing a post or tweet or even commenting on a forum. This form of digital identification is a controlled setting, as the user ultimately has control of what they put online. The more dangerous sector of one’s digital identity is everything a user does not have control of online. What happens when you have had too many drinks and do something stupid in a video that is then shared on someone’s social network, resulting in backlash or even regret? Although the user did not directly share this online, it could negatively affect and damage their digital identity. 

Social and Professional Digital Identities

Knowing the difference between one’s personal digital identity and professional digital identity is very important. Often users have different private networks for different crowds. Users’ private, online networks tend to showcase themselves in a more human and relaxed setting. For example, they share a picture of them at a bar or concert with their friends or comment on others’ networks with informal jargon or slang. 

Professional pages often are very polished representations of individuals sharing little to no information about themselves outside the workplace. As individuals’ professional digital identities are often intertwined and affiliated with their employers, many businesses have stringent policies and expectations regarding how their employees display their digital identities and interact online.

Understanding what to share and where to share can significantly help protect individuals’ personal identities.

My Digital Identity

Born in 2002, I created my digital identity in grade five, when I made my first Instagram page in 2014. Fast forward to 2022, I still have the same page, along with many other social and professional networks and accounts. Thankfully, as I began posting and sharing content on my pages, my parents informed me how important it is to be careful of what you post online. They reminded me how I should not say anything online that I would not say to someone’s face in person. This is a great principle I have established, and I often remind others of its importance. Other than a few cringy and funny videos that a more creative and much younger version of myself posted, every day, I make sure to remind myself how important it is to know what to and what not to post online and to my public networks.