Introduction:
Did you know that in 2025 over 5 billion people use social media worldwide? Which is a large chunk of the population. The internet has contributed significantly to shaping people’s lives and aiding connectivity for everyone around the world. Everything we do on social media if your profile is public is out there and is stored through a digital footprint. If you googled your posts or profiles, they would show up very clearly which just shows the vast size of the internet in terms of data, users and online presences.
Digital Identity & Footprint:
Digital identity is how you portray yourself online compared to in person interactions. Your online identity is all the things you use the internet for every single day which is stored on the internet as data and forms your digital footprint. A digital footprint put simply is a set of data that you will leave behind every time you search for something, order something or post anything on the internet. All this data is kept on the internet so once it is on there you can’t really get fully rid of it. The internet is a relatively new technology formed on the 1st of January 1983. One of the most popular search engines google anticipates that they handle on average 6.3 to 9.5 million searches per minute.
Personal Brand:
Your personal brand are a set of attributes or skills that makes a person themselves. Your social media profiles may or may not be a true reflection of your own personal brand. Your social media profiles are often used to share selfies, your hobbies and to update your friends and family. A personal brand on your social media account should be authentic although due to social expectations we are seeing less authentic and realistic personal brands presented online but instead in person as people often feel judged or insecure on social media that puts a lot of pressures on the cultural normative around social media posts and profiles. Social media is a great way to showcase your personal brand through your posts and creativity aided by the internet which is a good thing, however, the internet has a side to it that is negative which keeps your digital footprint and personal identity on there for a long time, this could be a problem in terms of privacy and authenticity.
Creating Your Online Prescence:
Creating an online presence in the 21st century is a great way for people to express themselves and share their lives with their friends, family and followers. Creating an online presence is important if you are a professional in a certain field such as the media industry to showcase your work and look for work. Platforms like LinkedIn are particularly good for networking and gaining employment opportunities. Other platforms like twitter and Instagram are good are sharing your posts and your online presence with other people. With more and more users on social media opting to go for a private account we have to ask why the internet has created an environment where people do not feel safe sharing their posts publicly and if more internet safety features are needed, I say yes.
Conclusion:
Overall, users constructing their identity in a digital world is very important when so many users use social media every single day. From the amount of searched per minute that Google receive, to social media profiles being created and posts the internet is a vital digital media concept and component to our media infrastructure in the 21st century. Do you agree?
Sources:
University System of Georgia (n.d.). A Brief History of the Internet. [online] Usg.edu. Available at: https://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit07/internet07_02.phtml.
Jones, P. (2024). 34 Eye-Opening Google Search Statistics for 2025. [online] Semrush Blog. Available at: https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-search-statistics/.
Datareportal (2025). Global Social Media Statistics. [online] DataReportal – Global Digital Insights. Available at: https://datareportal.com/social-media-users.
Image Credits:
defradigital.blog.gov.uk. (n.d.). New Year, new start: the changes that I’m pledging to my digital footprint – Defra digital, data and technology. [online] Available at: https://defradigital.blog.gov.uk/2020/01/10/new-year-new-start-the-changes-that-im-pledging-to-my-digital-footprint/.
www.linkedin.com. (n.d.). Digital Footprint: What Is It? [online] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-footprint-what-mehedi-hasan.
