Control and Protect Your Online Identity (Part 2)

In part 1 of this post, we talked about why we need to control what we post online. Having active online accounts in social media means you have an online presence. While of course it is not who you are in your entirety in real life, what you do share with the world is what you advertise about yourself. Therefore, it is totally within your control to shape your online profile.

If you haven't read part 1, check it out here now before reading on below.

Let's move on to part 2.


Protect Your Online Profile 

"Using a smartphone without taking the necessary precautions has become riskier than ever," declares Eric Schwartzman, who created Udemy's Mobile Cybersecurity Awareness course. Most of us use our mobile devices nowadays to access our social network via mobile apps, which are generally easy to use. They're sometimes too easy to use, making them also easy to abuse and misuse. We should never dismiss the reality of cybersecurity, especially since protecting ourselves while using online services is actually simple and doesn't take a lot of time to do.

The tips listed below are based largely on the Mobile Cybersecurity Awareness course, and I highly encourage also checking and following these common sense security guidelines.

Control and Protect Your Online Identity (Part 1)

"Is this gonna be seen on the internet? Like, public? Because I'm wondering if I can say negative things." These were my 15-year old son's concerns as he drafted his very first short article for a family blog project. I was pleasantly amused (and mildly proud) because those are exactly what we should all be thinking about before posting anything on the internet.

FutureLearn's short module on "Managing Your Online Identity" says that if you have active social media accounts, then you have an online presence. In my humble opinion, there are two essential aspects about our online presence that we should be mindful of: Controlling what we post (read on below) and Protecting our online profile (discussed in Part 2 of this article).

6 Productive Things to Do Away from Social Media

Do you feel that sometimes your social network's feed is so full of new information, opinions, and negativity? It can get quite overwhelming, especially when there are hot topics that get many people firing on all cylinders. A study has recently found scientific proof why we would feel inundated while traversing the digital landscape. One way people deal with this is by doing a digital detox.

In late 2010, I did a 7-day detox from my entire social network and, because of work, used only SMS and email for communications. If I needed to research online, I tried very hard not to stray towards any of my social media accounts. Ironically, getting sore eyes in the last 2 days made the detox even easier. Remembering how refreshed my mind truly became after that week, it made me want to do another digital detox soon. But then I got to wondering about why I urgently felt like this -- do I simply need to purge all the bad vibes or, worse, am I already addicted to my online habits?

Think about this part I highlighted from the article "Social Media Detox: Identifying Addiction and Disconnecting From Your Newsfeed":

“You know social media is taking over your life when you feel worse after being on it, when you spend more time on it than planned, and when you forgo regular activities to continue browsing..." [emphasis mine]

If this rings true for you, then you're in luck, that article provides four very simple, very doable steps to deal with that stuff.  And to help you further, below are six other things you can do while you're weaning from your social media:

Catch the Catfish

Have you heard of the term "catfish"? Here's how Urban Dictionary describes it:

A lot of people attribute this term to the 2010 documentary, "Catfish". Go find it and watch it after reading this blog post ;-)

My friend was recently catfished. Well, almost. It was by sheer coincidence that I told her about "Catfish" and it made her realize that someone on her social network might actually be catfishing her. After doing some googling, she soon confirmed that her stalker was maintaining two separate Facebook page profiles to support his lies (both pages have been deleted) and he's actually a 50-something guy from another country 0_o

Catfishers prey on emotional vulnerabilities; it toys with the human need to socialize and to connect on a personal level. Here are some tips for protecting yourself against catfishing:

Advocacy and the Cybercrime Law

Make no mistake about it: the Philippines does need a cybercrime prevention law. But, the online world is not just some other new realm into which the laws of the physical world can simply be applied in a snap. It is not a direct reflection of how society interacts in the physical world. The internet has so very many nooks and crannies of possibilities for varying purposes. Somewhere on this planet, someone is already creating the next whatever that will change things again in the online world. Not 5 years from now. It may very well be ready in a month.  And as soon as we understand it, it can quickly become a part of how we do things.

Take Facebook, for example.  Just 5-6 years ago, all we knew to do with it was to throw virtual sheep at friends. Now, Facebook has become the infrastructure with which people are saving lives on the other side of the world, overthrowing governments, and exposing illegal activities.  Just to name a few.

Yet, while there are a great number of good things that can be done, there is also a great number of cruel things that can take advantage of the same technology. And that is why, in these times we live in, a piece of legislation that can protect and guide online users is necessary. But, it has to be well-thought out and crafted with a deep understanding of the online world's landscape and how netizens move in it. Unfortunately and obviously, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 or R.A. 10175 was not formulated in that manner.