In a world governed by mobile devices and social media, creating a presence for oneself on digital mediums and ‘breaking’ the internet is of utmost importance
Words: Rajesh Nair Images: www.refinery29.uk
It is that time of the year when we relook at not just the year but also onto our lives and try to make perceptible changes in the hope of a better future. While quitting habits, losing weight etc. has been on many roster and journal, the latest fad is to build or rebuild your digital presence. Today it is not enough if you are an embellished Curriculum Vitae with achievements, but you also need a presence in the digital space which commands eyeballs, explains the right tone about you and also builds the appropriate image.
One of my favourite anecdotes on technology is an incident at the beginning of my career as an engineer. Having joined the ranks the largest automobile company in India, I was as enthusiastic and ‘green’ behind the ears, as they come. Thinking deeply on what assignment could be given to me to what my enthusiasm and eagerness, he said ‘Can you take a print of the names of the workmen in this department and stick the printed names on their lockers? Considering we have around hundred workmen, I hope you can complete this work in three days?’ So I set on the ‘challenging task’ with a program called Wordstar and a dot matrix printer, which had to be fed large paper with perforated corners to help fit into the gear-shaped spool at the end of the rollers. The noise of the printer was similar to that of a busy rhythmic hum. The officious sound also gave an impression that something of immense importance was going on. So in half day, I was done with the prints and had it glued to the respective boxes. My supervisor looked at me with admiration and the workmen could not gape with wonder. ‘Gosh, we have a young engineer, who knows how to take printouts!!!!’ They looked at me as if I were Bill Gates or Steve Jobs – the cutting edge of technology! That was the pre-internet nineties!
More than two decades later, I can’t be excited about my technological skills, which consisted of taking printouts! We also managed to coast through technical institutions with knowing how the word ‘digital’ would transform our lives! And definitely, we never knew that we would have digital personas or ‘digital avatar’!
Digital avatar is the digital depiction of you, in graphics, internet, and electronic media et.al. For the purpose of this short article – I classify it as the digital persona you have projected of yourself, which is deciphered by all your digital presence including your social media presence and your digital footprint, in terms of websites you have visited, purchases you have made online, searches you have done. I also refrain from using names of companies which work on this space, a normal ‘Google’ search will get you that information.
If someone is able to trace your entire internet journey, there is more information available on you than you would probably want to believe. Your searches, your postings, you ‘Likes’, your frequent visits to particular sites, your digital purchases is all available to a digital tracker. The button ‘Delete’ or ‘Delete History’ does not really hide the tracks. The multifarious passwords are constantly looked at and there is a recent algorithm which will predict not only the passwords but also the characters or numbers you are likely to use the passwords. This will also lead to intelligently sending your pop-ups and ‘advertisements’ on products that may interest you and links, you have high propensity to use.
What this has created is also the need to be responsible in your digital sojourns. There are placement agencies who will scour this history to figure your personality. The recent political campaigns have extensively tried to dig deep into candidates and retrieve information on your liaisons, pet peeves and the ‘hidden’ you. To also reiterate, these are not skills which require a hacker or a vile cyber-mind. The logs through IP addresses, URLs etc., are easy to access and any amount of data is not ‘BIG’ anymore. There are gazillion tools to help you decode and this is not hieroglyphics anymore.
This is also not all bad news. You can leverage this information too. The social presence and advocacy you do on the internet can also help you market yourself, your company and your services. People will find it easier to locate you and get more information on you. Any professional these days will search for you on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc., before coming to meet you. This can also be to your advantage. You can take a few tips from Lee Strasberg – ‘Method acting’ to create the persona you want to build.
I don’t hint perjury or apocryphal information. I mean aspects of you, you want to project and create a recall in minds. In any case, the next time you click on a button, remember, that click is another page in your digital biography!
About the Author – Rajesh Nair heads EY in Kerala and is also the president of TiE Kerala. With more than two decades of experience in advertising and managing assignments across organizations to his credit, Rajesh loves to share his insights and can be found writing on all aspects of management with a special interest in entrepreneurship, startups and e-governance.