What if an internet search reveals you barely exist?
Don’t worry. This isn’t the plot of an upcoming novel. Having been tasked with investigating my digital footprint, I am reminded of something expected but uncommon: the only traces of me in the digital universe can be found (excluding academic platforms) in less than ten media posts.
Unusual? Yes. Understandable? Absolutely. Until this point, my traceable footprints have been small. For instance, I do not currently have a social media account, and the websites and podcasts I have shaped over the years have either been closed or remain anonymous for privacy reasons.
This does not mean I lack an online identity, however. While not as easily found as the footprints of some of my peers, the content I leave behind and consume each day speaks volumes to my personality and this website’s purpose.
Gathering Wildflowers: Reclaiming My Digital Identity
One of the bittersweet effects of having a limited digital footprint is that what is shared holds more power. When one’s digital track record is slim, each individual mention is more closely scrutinized than that of someone with expansive content circling the web.
- The school discussions, video projects, and academic writing I send in reflect my curiosity and creative use of words and visuals.
- Scattered examples of my WordPress and Glitch websites speak to my many interests and how I approach problems involving color, images, and site presentation.
- My love of interviewing people and working with rough media are highlighted in the podcasts found on platforms such as SoundCloud.
Multimodality, or the use of different types (modes) of content to communicate with one’s audience, is something I love to incorporate into my work.
- Pairing a good story with a photo ties linguistic elements with other modes like spatial and visual.
- Overlaying aural elements like music with gestural and visual ones like a video using Adobe Premiere gives my audience a chance to experience my message on multiple levels.
- Something as simple as embedding a Trinket chat bot into a decorative web article creates a memorable and interactive webpage.
After surveying my content creator legacy, I realize that I am facing an unusual dilemma compared to many of my peers: I do not appear to exist online. Unable to easily find content I created in the past, readers and potential partners investigating me will feel as if they are embarking on a poorly-planned treasure hunt.
A Budding Analogy
If you are making a bouquet, would you rather hike across miles of fields searching for one species of wildflower or know exactly where to find it? Unless one hopes to take a leisurely stroll, one would likely choose the latter.
This realization reaffirms the purpose of my website. By creating a home base for my best work and revealing what I am capable of with this website, I hope to make my content easier to find. With all of my wildflowers, excuse me, content media, in one place, the full width of my abilities can be seen more clearly.
Full-Course Meal: My Content Consumption Habits
While my career as a content creator has not been largely public or organized, I am an omnivore in my content consumption. Within my computer history one will find pieces of me in the media I interact with each day.
Without a doubt the area in which I consume the most media is academics. Brightspace is my home-away-from-home. Its clear spatial and visual layout has helped me to adapt multiple learning environments. Websites like Encyclopedia Britannica and National Geographic assist me in compiling research. I like how they do not solely inform: they balance vivid images, podcasts, and formal text to make learning appealing to almost every sense.
I consume media content to unwind. Watching movies on Prime Video, viewing shows on HBO Max, or reading on a Kindle help me master visual and aural storytelling while enjoying myself. Goodreads and IMDb track what I want to experience next, something proven from endless “Watch Next” files. The movements of the actors, the audio tracks, and the video imagery all work together to create something phenomenal.
My favorite sports content displays my career interests and demonstrates more multimodality. For example, NFL games use the linguistic (the sports commentators’ dialogue), visual (footage of the game itself and special effects), aural (complementary music and crowd noises), gestural (the body language of the players and referees), and spatial modes (the positions of players and the scoreboard) to rivet audiences like me.
Much of the media I utilize is multimodal; however, I discovered that linguistic and visual modes are found consistently. These habits appear throughout my own work. Whether choosing a stunning picture for my podcasts or creating a strong caption for my photographs, I internalize what makes each medium effective and attempt to showcase its strengths.
Takeaways: Illuminating My Digital Identity
After considering what content I consume and create, I have discovered several things about my online identity:
- The websites, podcasts, and writing I have created in the past highlight my creative side and abilities.
- My internet searches, movie choices, and YouTube subscriptions paint a picture of my interests.
- While limited, the places where I am a content creator accurately represent my personality and abilities.
- Using this website as a cumulative portfolio will help me create a place to store my strongest work and experience.
Most crucially, I realized that the mosaic of different digital mediums I interact with makes who I am on the screen multimodal in itself. My spoken narratives, search histories, and everything in between play a role in how I present myself online.
Using this information, I hope to refine my personal brand to continuously reflect my abilities as they improve. Additionally, I hope to consume more content that will improve my storytelling skills and let me witness digital marketing in action. This way, my work and history will become a digital passport of my travels to be viewed by the world.
