Google Searched Myself
I found it interesting when we were asked in class to Google ourselves. I learned and changed some things from this experience. My Instagram and Facebook showed up which I used as an opportunity to see what others could see with my social media, I could see a little more on my Facebook then I thought people who weren’t my friends would be able to see. I took this as an opportunity to close down my Facebook a little more and make it more private. My Instagram was made private so unless you had my permission to follow you couldn’t see anything. The other site that came up was my wedding website that had all the details of my wedding and I thought that was a little more private then it was but I don’t think I’m really concerned with that as it’s all information I’d be ok with others seeing. The other site that came up when my name was Google search was my blog which I was happy to see showing up as I think it is good for others to see my professional information. This gave me an opportunity to see what others see when they search me up and also made me realize things weren’t as private as I thought they were.
Looking into all of this made me realize that anyone can search me up on the internet and these are the things they will see about me. Are these things I want them seeing and do they give a professional picture of who I am? On multiple occasions I have had to have conversations with my friends about what they post about me on social media or tag me in. I have a professional image to keep up and have to realize how things posted by me or about me will be taken by others, especially those who do not know me. As I am nearing the end of my education degree I am getting close to the time when I apply for jobs and also am spending time looking after other people’s children. I want them to be confident in having me spend time with these children when they search me up and see me as someone they want to trust their children with.
If someone spends enough time searching me up on the internet they will find articles about me from my childhood and my past. Which at least for me those are positive posts but for others that could be things they posted on the internet when they were younger and just being silly with their friends.
I have been thinking about my presence online and on social media I wonder if things will be taken out of context and taken the wrong way. The way I meant for something to be taken online might be taken differently by others. I can think of a specific post years ago that this ended up happening with. The post I wrote said “Shitty end to 2015 hope the next year is better” looking at this post it could have been taken many different ways. Some of the assumptions made by others were that my boyfriend and I broke up and that I had had a fight with my family. What had actually happened was that I had majorly broken my arm and would be having surgery that night. I did not give any details to that in my post and left a lot of room for everyone to make their own assumptions of what my post was meaning. Now when I make posts I try to be as specific as I can be, reread it a few times and think about what others will take away from my posts.
Others can find out a lot of information about you from the internet and it is important to Google search yourself every once in a while and make sure what comes up when your name is searched is what you want others to see about you.