Take Care of Your Internet Footprint

Regardless of your current life circumstances, the amount of web usage you consume each day, or how little you think your opinions or jokes are being noticed, be very clear – you need to take care of your internet footprint. Whether or not you own a business right now, whether or not you only post humorous material, whether or not you think your internet presence will be forgotten – it won’t. Again, I repeat: take care of your internet footprint.

Your Internet Footprint Lasts Forever

Every single piece of information you post on the internet can be found, and will be able to be found, for the rest of all time. This includes Facebook closed groups, tweets on Twitter, Instagram photos, everything. This includes posts under a different name, a nickname, an impersonation – everything. It ultimately doesn’t matter, it will be noted, and it is going to come out if someone researches you.

So, think about it – anything you post online can be discovered and exploited for certain types of messaging. What if you decide you want to go into politics 15 years down the road? Are the things you are posting right now here today going to be brought up then? Absolutely. If you’re posting oddball and deviant stuff right now, stop it immediately. Don’t leave a lasting imprint of your past mistakes.

It’s Easier To Find Than You Think

Do NOT think you’re anonymous – you are not anonymous. It’s very, very easy to find out someone’s internet footprint. You may not think so, but it definitely is. Let alone the fact that even if it was somewhat difficult to find your footprint, people in power will pay employees with special skills to find out this kind of information. The more ambitious your goals are, the more likely your colleagues (“The Big Boys”) are going to be to want to know about your internet footprint and what kind of person you’ve been. Are you who you present yourself to be?

Let’s say you’ve posted some outrageous things in your supposedly dark and distant past and you apply for a job. Quite easily, your employer may find that weird stuff about you on the web, and they’re not going to hire you. This is especially true of institutions like banks or government positions. They frankly don’t want to take the risk.

Your Internet Footprint Reflects Your Integrity

Potential business partners, clients, and employers are ALL invested in finding out how high your integrity is. If you have an online footprint full of a bunch of odd things on the net, they’re not going to hire you. Clients are not going to want to work with you. Political campaigns are not going to choose you as their candidate. It’s just the name of the game.

Successful people do not want to be around negative people. They avoid it like the plague. They will go to any lengths to avoid it. By leaving an internet footprint full of negative, toxic, or otherwise potentially harmful information to yourself and your potential colleagues, you increase the risk of failure down the road.

Do not post negative stuff on your Facebook, do not post negative stuff on your Twitter, do not post negative stuff anywhere. Do not troll people – it’s not going to bring you anything good. Even if you think you’re just a student now, you’re just young, you’re just having a laugh. In 10-20 years, that may not be the case.

I hope I’ve made myself clear – take care of your internet footprint or risk serious consequences. Kharma is a bitch as they say.