Digital Tattoo and YOU!

I try to never say never, but I don’t think I’ll ever get a real tattoo! There is something about a permanent mark on my skin that makes me feel very uncomfortable. I feel the same way about having a permanent mark on my digital data, my ‘digital tattoo’. I remember a couple of years ago when my son was applying for a job after graduating from graduate school. The first thing he did before he even sent out his applications was to search for himself on the internet to make sure that what was out there was not something that would prevent him from getting the job that was the right one for him. Not that he would have posted something inappropriate, but you never know what someone else might post. So he did a data mining activity on himself. Our activity and what we found the other night did not surprise me at all. Does it concern me? Yes it concerns me. We do not have a right to privacy anymore, everything seems to be up for grabs. I believe this is a topic that absolutely should be taught to students. However, I think that it is more appropriate for middle and high school than it is for elementary school. With the use of iPads and SmartPhones, students have instant access to the internet and social media, yet they are not aware of the consequences and the permanence of the their date on the internet. I believe that students that age do not always think before they post or even search the web. It’s scary to think that everything one does is recorded and that there is a digital record that will never go away. I think middle and high school students need to realize that like a real tattoo, anything they do on the internet is there to stay and that someday it may come back to haunt them. Even if it is something small and cute.

(Image downloaded from the internet)