Abstract:

Social networks (SNS) are a normal part of most young people's lives. In fact, for most of them, it has been so since their birth. However, during their early childhood, they had no say in how their parents presented them on their SNS. When they were later creating their first SNS profiles, they were not likely thinking about the consequences it might have for them in the future in the form of a digital footprint. Children often set up their profiles without their parents' knowledge. Of course, opinions and attitudes were changing as the children were aging. What the adolescent used to consider worth sharing did not, in most cases, coincide with the attitudes of an adult personality. For pedagogy students, the situation is somewhat more complicated concerning their future employment, where their self-presentation will matter much more than in other fields.

This article describes findings among students of the Faculty of Education of Palacký University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. A total of 22 students of different ages and majors in the teacher's study program took part in the pilot study using a questionnaire survey. Students answered both open-ended and closed-ended questionnaire items.

The results indicate that students are not particularly concerned about their digital footprint. If they delete a post from their profile, it is more likely due to a change of opinion or fear of possible ridicule, not because of future employment. The findings show that students are still unaware that their digital footprints could affect their position in the labor market. The pilot study suggests that it is appropriate to focus much more deeply on this topic in future research.

Keywords:

Digital footprint, teacher students, social networks.