I followed the ‘Intermediate’ guide because I have a Twitter but rarely use it.  I had no idea Twitter offered the Analytics feature, and I think that it is such a useful tool.  Businesses and the like could really benefit from looking at that data to manage their account and better reach their target audience.  I thought the Events tab in the Analytics was really cool because you can see what the popular events are, where they’re taking place, and how many people are tweeting about it.  I also did not know the list feature existed, but I think it’s a convenient tool to use.  For people who have one account to manage their personal and professional lives, making two separate lists could be really helpful.

I went through the accessibility settings on my phone.  I knew that it was possible to change the size of text because my parents enabled this feature on their phones.  However, there are so many features that I did not know about that are seem so amazing for people with certain disabilities.  I think that it’s so great that Apple is trying to make their devices as accessible to everyone as possible.  Going through the stories of web users with disabilities made me aware of the problems some people can face that I didn’t previously consider.  I have a friend that is colour blind and I know that shopping is particularly difficult for him, so I’m glad that there is an effort to increase awareness about this issue and correct it.

First off, I love Bitmojis because they have a lot of detail and can really capture specific emotions that regular emojis cannot.  When Apple released the different skin tones for emojis, I thought it was great that they were expanding representation of their audience.  However, the changes did not personally affect me, since my skin tone was the one they were using before.  I can see how people are offended by the emojis and think they have a valid point that the emojis are all the same just with different skin colours.  I agree that emojis should accurately represent people by attributing certain characteristics to different emojis.  However, it seems like that might be too much detail to capture in such a tiny picture.  There is always the default yellow colour to use, or even better, Bitmojis!

I went through my phone’s privacy settings and found that the information my apps have access to is what I expected.  For Location Services, I made sure that for all my apps access was granted only ‘while using’ for the ones that needed it.  For apps that never require my location, I made sure access was always on ‘never.’  I have allowed a lot of apps access to my photos, which surprised me at first but actually makes sense since I upload attachments and the like quite frequently.

When I Googled myself, no results came up (despite my attempt to narrow the search).  Instead, an Indian fashion designer with the same name appeared.  I’m glad that it is not easy to find me through a generic search.

I think that it is super important to be aware of your digital footprint.  It is a lot easier to prevent yourself from posting things than trying to get it off the internet later on.  It is important to make sure that everything you post online (including this blog post that I’m writing now) is an accurate representation of who you are and how you want the world to see you.

I hope that through the 23 Things programme I can learn about various topics in the digital world that will make me a better online citizen.  I did not know that the University had a Social Media Student Handbook.  I found the information very useful and applicable to the way I conduct myself on social media platforms and online in general.