This document discusses personal identity in online spaces and the importance of media literacy. It notes that people leave a "digital footprint" of everything they upload online, which is used by algorithms for advertising purposes. Over 80% of children under age 2 already have an online identity. The document advises users to check who can see their online content and why, as well as take steps like thinking before posting, checking facts with sites like Snopes, and remembering content can be taken out of context. Users are encouraged to contact the author with any other questions.

1. Media Literacy and
Personal Identity
What it means to you.
Presented by Jamie Cohen
Professor and Program Director
New Media at Molloy College

2. Have you ever
Googled
yourself?
This sounds silly, but it’s important
to check from time to time.
We have only one reputation and
what we leave online is called a
“digital footprint.”
Everything uploaded associated
to your name is part of your
footprint.

3. What it means to understand
personal identity in an online space.
The term for the amount of “stuff” online is called “Big Data” and it’s being
used for advertising purposes. The more people add content to to the web,
the better the machine understands the user.

4. How is your
online identity?
According to Pew Internet Life,
the more you go online, the more
integral it is to your life.
Pew finds that “people without
Internet access are at a real
disadvantage because of the all
the information they might be
missing,” while 94% percent
surveyed agree with the
statement that “the Internet
makes it much easier to find
information today than in the
past.”

5. Where online
identity starts
1.2 billion people have Facebook.
Their online identity begins almost
immediately.
Over 80% of children under the
age of 2 have an online identity.
Many have a presence before
they are born.

6. The issue at hand: Privacy and Identity
What is identity? How do you create it? How to do you
maintain it?

7. How the web
sees its users
As technology advances, we are
more susceptible to digital
algorithms that “phish” and “rake”
our data.
It’s weird to think of our uploads
as data, but that’s all that the
software thinks it is.

8. Where is your stuff?
Becoming media literate about content uploads and identity management.

9. And now the gloomy stuff.
Who sees it?
Why do they see it?
How do we know?

10. Why it matters.
Your identity is valuable, literally. It
creates a sense of who you are
and why you are. The more we
leave online, the more there is left
there for a long time.
To get even gloomier, our data
outlive us.

11. Steps to being more media literate
Context is king.
Remember that what you post may be taken out of context for anyone to
see.

12. Steps to being more media literate
Context is king.
Remember that what you post may be taken out of context for anyone to
see.

13. Think first, post
second.
Very often, misinformation is
spread simply by sharing without
checking. You can help other
users (and yourself) by checking
with Snopes.com first before
posting something.
Pro-tip: If it sounds too good or
too crazy to be true, it probably is.
[The Internet is a weird place.]

14. Good luck out there!
Any further questions? I’d love to talk!
jcohen@molloy.edu
You can find this presentation at