Digital Identity – Blogpost #2 by Michael Donkers

When I think of my own digital identity in terms of both personally and professionally, I try to take the approach of looking through a professional lens even with my personal presence online. I think it’s really important to look at my personal identity as how I present myself, it’s showcasing who I am and what I am all about. So if that is coming across as not being professional, how is that going to reflect upon myself when those two worlds ultimately cross paths? It’s inevitable that they will, especially with the media driven world that we currently live in and it’s very hard to hide things once they get out there. So I always try to keep in mind that while my personal life can still be fun and represent who I truly am, I should be aware of the fact that the interactions I’m making through social media could be with potential employers or connections to future employers.

Resource – QUIZ: What kind of social media user are you? – Digital Tattoo 
I found it really interesting to take this quiz, as when I look through the different categories I would have thought I would just be classified as a “normie” as I feel like I’m pretty intentional about what I post. To me it’s really important to be thinking about what I’m posting and what this says about me. But upon taking the quiz I was classified as being an “influencer” which at first did not make sense to me, but reflecting on it I guess it does make sense to a certain point. A lot of what I post is about places I’ve been, things I’ve done or perhaps places I’ve eaten (I really like food!). So I guess in a way I am curating content, I’ve just never really thought of myself as being an influencer so I just found it really interesting that’s where I landed. 

I was reading through the following article from our course page – “What is your digital identity?” Unpacking users’ understandings of an evolving concept in datafied societies – Jussara Rowland, João Estevens, 2025 and the following quote really stuck out to me “Our digital identity is, for example, the image that we want other people to perceive of us. We sell our image as a product in relationships, or social networks. (. . .) For example, LinkedIn, where our work information is. [Carolina_female_25–34].” To me it really is about this idea of a perceived imaged, as we are social beings that invest a lot of time and energy into how we are viewed by the world. So with this in mind, I think in the future I will continue to really focus on my digital identity staying authentic to myself because as I learned by taking the quiz I mentioned earlier how I perceive myself and how I’m presenting myself might not necessarily align. It will be really important for myself as a future educator to align my perception of myself to how I’m presenting myself so that my digital presence is truly authentic to who I am as both an educator and as a person.