Science/Technology
Reputation Management and Social Media: How People Monitor Their Identity and Search for Others Online
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has issued a report that looks at how Internet users monitor and maintain their reputation and find others using social media and search engines. Based on a survey of more than 2,250 adults, the report, Reputation Management and Social Media: How People Monitor Their Identity and Search for Others Online (47 pages, PDF), found that 57 percent of those surveyed said they had used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47 percent in 2006. Moreover, 46 percent of respondents said they had created their own profile on a social networking site, up from 20 percent four years ago. In spite of the notion that young adults are indifferent about their digital footprints, the report also found that 71 percent of social networking users between the ages of 18 and 29 have changed the privacy settings on their profiles to limit what they share with others online.
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