Clean Up Your Online Presence

For many people, when seasons change, our thoughts turn to cleaning up our homes – getting rid of the old stuff and organizing the things we actually need and want.  We “lighten our load” and it feels good. “Spring” cleaning allows us to think about taking inventory of our lives and getting rid of anything that isn’t helping us live the life we want live or be the person we want to be. Let's extend our idea of “spring” cleaning to our digital footprint as well.

For many people, “spring” cleaning means going through their closet or junk drawer and making decisions about what to keep and what to throw away.  While those overdue chores are worth our time and effort, we need to add something else to our “spring” cleaning list –we also need to remember to clean up our digital footprints.

We need to get into a regular habit of examining our digital footprints and purging anything online that doesn’t represent us well.  Like it or not, we live our lives online, and others make judgments about us based on what we post.  Sometimes in a moment in time, we feel a certain way and want to share our thoughts online, and at that moment it seems like a good idea to post.  We need to recognize that while our yesterday self, thought sharing certain images or thoughts was just fine, our today self might recognize that what we shared might be misconstrued by others or doesn’t represent us the way we thought it did.  We need to take the time to review our posts and shares and consider what should stay and what should be removed from our online profile.

Anytime of year is a great time to clean out and reorganize.  While you are lightening up your closet, your wardrobe and your home, don’t forget to take the time to clean up your online profiles as well.