So what are your views on googling people? (Knitsteel is opposed to the use of “google” as a verb, and I think of her every time I do it.) It seems to me that all tech-savvy people should assume that everyone has access to everything about them on the internet, so no one should object to being googled.
That is, if you have a blog, you should assume unless it is proven otherwise that everyone you know can and may read it. If there are pictures of your drunken revels on Facebook, you should figure that everyone can see them.
People who are not tech-savvy imagine that there is such a thing as privacy on the internet. Yeah. And your neighbors, your coworkers, and the people at church have no idea what you do with your free time. There is no more privacy on the internet than IRL.
I don’t believe in gossip, but I do believe in research. Chances are, if you have a blog, I read it. I probably don’t go look at your pictures on Facebook, but someone else might have shown them to me and/or described them to me. And certainly, just as we used to tell students to hang out near the elevators when they were applying for jobs in order to see what the company’s dress code was, you ought to google anyone you plan to work for. It is courteous to go to the trouble to find out about them.
The real question is this: is it courteous, if you know lots of extra stuff about people, to bring it up when you talk with them, or not?
I’m not sure about this. I think that I should not, when I talk with an acquaintance, make any reference to things I happen to know about that person because we live in a small town. If I happen to know about her son’s arrest record and she knows funny stories about my husband, we can both serenely pretend not to know those things, because we haven’t told them to each other.
However, when a fellow bookseller called me yesterday morning and mentioned in passing his experiences with discounting, I thought it completely proper to tell him that I had heard about that at the time. Being up to date on people’s professional lives just shows that you’re knowledgeable.
What about when the lines get blurred? Certainly, I know about my clients’ awards and portfolios. However, do I officially know about their families or where they live? Does it make a difference whether they are male or female? Does it make a difference how adept they are with computers? If they will think I don’t know whether they have kids merely because I was too lame to look it up, are the rules different for them than for someone who thinks her home page can only be seen by people with passwords?
I’m minding a bookstore today. I’ve also been asked about working a couple of days at a sale at another bookstore. Maybe I can be a bookstore sitter. Actually, I had a call asking whether I would consider managing a store yesterday. It is too bad a commute for the going rate of pay, so I said no. #2 daughter couldn’t believe that I had turned down a job. I have a phone interview this morning for a job with an even worse commute, but chances are it pays better. Janalisa said last night that I should make a sincere effort to add some more clients, whether I have time for them or not, just to see whether I am as dependent on my two big clients as I think I am. If I do that while under contract, then I will have sufficient income when the contract ends — or else know that I should still be jobhunting. Or not turning down retail management positions.
In other news, #1 daughter called yesterday to ask whether she could move back in with us. After working through her budget, she has decided that she can’t afford to go to school in Cowboy Land without working full time, and she is afraid that she won’t be able to handle working full time and school at the same time. Her boss down there is going to try to help her find something part time while she’s here, and she’ll go back to school full time. They said they’ll have a job for her when she finishes, if she wants to go be a cowgirl. She might miss it. We might be too sedate for her now that she’s been in Cowboy Land for a while.
Googling someone is totally acceptable, but is entirely not viable in everyday conversation. Though, of course, M once brought something of his that was floating on the internet and I told him of course I’d seen it.
“I had to google you to make sure you weren’t dangerous.”
Fortunately we laughed.
@chanthaboune – It’s true, though. And I think we all know that googling is part of modern courtship.
“Do you like Kipling?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never kippled.”
I’ve not really been in this situation: but I think it comes to having to be aware what we’re putting out there (well, duh). To be honest, if it’s something personal, then unless you’ve been told it in person, it shouldn’t really come up in conversation unless you’re talking to a dear friend who KNOWS that you’re reading their blog (and even then, Sepha and I don’t debate stuff on our blogs, and we are in fairly constant communication otherwise).
I am a total google stalker. I get really frustrated when i meet new people that I CAN’T find out about on the internet, haha.
And yes, it comes in handy in modern courtship. I met my sweetheart on the bus in a large city, and even though he seemed really nice you never can tell. So instead of giving him my phone number we exchanged myspaces, and started up a correspondence through there, first. Checked out each other’s friends, blogs, pictures, and then went on our first date. yay, technology!!
It doesn’t usually occur to me to google acquaintances, but I don’t have that many. I do try to protect my privacy, or at least censor what I put out on the web to a degree. There’s not a lot that I mind people knowing, and I’m relatively boring. I probably would not mention something I read on someone’s site without at least commenting there first so that they knew I read it.
of course I google people, really who doesn’t? our school district recently was in the middle of interviewing & hiring a new superintendent. before the initial interviews the first thing I did was google all the candidates. when I came to the second interviews with information obtained about each candidate my fellow board members wanted to know where I got it all from. all of them were surprised that I had gotten so much information just by googling someone’s name. geez, we are gonna hire someone based on 2 conversations with them, they could say anything they wanted about test scores, finances & what not, of course I’m going to make sure it’s true.
I think googling someone is fine. I google myself and my husband all the time to see what other people can see about us. I especially think it’s a good idea to google potential workplaces to find out their mission statement and their goals so you can tailor your interview around how you can help them with their mission/goals. I don’t think I’d tell them I know how many kids they have or where they live though, that might come across as a bit of a stalker. Good luck to #1 daughter and her college. That’s wonderful that her workplace is so willing to help.
@stephane0305 –
Yeah, I’m not interesting enough to worry about privacy that much. But I try not to infringe on other people’s privacy by posting stuff about their more exciting lives.
Every so often I google a friend — and am pleasantly surprised. Our friend the potter now has a new gallery or an opening, etc. (It’s hard to stay in touch because they live about 3 hours away, have 4 kids, etc). Sometimes I feel a little sneaky though. Like I’m spying or something.
Will Daughter #1 move home and attend the local university? Good for her. đŸ™‚
I never had a problem with googling people but then I was never under the illusion that there was anything private about the internet any more than I was ever under the illusion that there was anything private about telephone calls. I actually put off using the internet for quite a few years because I did know how not-private it was. Apart from internet searching by anyone who wants to, it is extremely easy to intercept telephone calls and data packets just with a couple of low tech tools. If you really want telecommunication privacy get a few hundred kilometres of string and tie a tin can to each end – it’s much more difficult to intercept a call or data over that technology – of course the transmission and reception won’t be quite as good…
@sighkey –
You would fall under the tech-savvy rules, I guess, until you start using your tin can phone exclusively.