Tech Task #9 Are You Well Googled?

Description of Task:

Tech Task #9 Are you Well Googled?

• Google yourself take a screen shot and write about those resuts
• Do you like what you find?
• What might you like to see in the future?

Well back to the topic of digital footprints, I guess since this is an online computer course it MIGHT be a popular topic haha. As I have expressed before my ideas of digital footprints have been not very positive in the past. The idea of anyone in the world being able to learn about me was something I never thought of positively. I only ever thought of the negatives. I shall express some of the “what if’s” that would go through my mind:

WHAT IF….

-someone searches me and then twists things I say and makes me sound horrible which will prevent me from ever being hired

-someone creeps on me and steals my online identity, like in identity thief the movie, and people think it is really me and this person portrays me horribly

-someone finds me and hunts me down and kills me

-someone finds my twitter address and adds me as a follower AND I DON’T KNOW THEM

-someone emails me, asking more about who I am and my relations to education!!!

As I went down my list there were some ones I exaggerated but these are real thoughts that went through my head and looking back now and after learning about the positives of digital foot printing I can only now see my silliness in these thoughts.

I have many times since starting university and beginning my professional career “googled” myself. Actually when Dean tweeted not too long ago about finding other sites to “google” yourself I did so immediately.

Ever since entering university we have been given “stern” lectures on how we need to be cautious of what we put on the internet, and the university was not wrong we do need to be cautious, but cautious does not mean fearful and that was always the message and feeling I left with after hearing those talks.

So I was very aware what my “googled” identity looked like and although some things made me be like “really, THAT’S on there” (refer to picture below of earring that I bought/favourited on esty) there were no shocks. Now before I post the picture of my screen shotted “googled” self I want to tell people kind of a funny story.

In the world you live in today there is not one BUT TWO Allison Gottselig’s. No people I do not have a split personality but what I say is true. I have a distant third or maybe fourth or maybe it’s my twenty second cousin (really after second cousin I stop keeping track of how we are related) that has the same name as me. She is now married but does hyphenate her name. This has caused funny stories in the past. My favourite being the one where my mom was at work (she is a dental hygienist/therapist) and we had been living in Moose Jaw probably a year and in her chair walks in a nice twenty two ish woman. My mom begins working and a little while into it the lady asks my mom if she knows Allison Gottselig. My mom replies, “Well yes, she is my daughter”… the lady gets all excited and responds “Oh that’s neat, her and I go drinking all the time together!!!” My mom then informed this woman that HER Allison was only 11 and probably was not the Allison she was referring to. Clearly this lady had not been close with Allison because, and mom you better love me for saying this, my mom did not look at the time like she could be the mother to a 22 year old… now she does… but only cause I am 22… almost.

The point of my long winded but funny (or at least I think it is) is that when you google my name some of her stuff comes up. Luckily we are both classy ladies and nothing horrid comes up from her end and gets mistaken for me 🙂

So after googling myself I like that my blog is the first thing that comes up because there is nothing written in here that I am ashamed of and I actually hope people do read it. As I expressed in the chat tonight the one thing I don’t like or didn’t like that comes up is my phone number and email address. It was for a wiki that a group of middle years had. HOWEVER it also depends which computer you search me on because I have done it on others computers and that wiki doesn’t come up and so I think google factors in sites you have bookmarked/visited when bringing up these results. The reason I say that I didn’t like this is because Dean made a good point. With Sasktel 411 or sask phone book online, you can easily find out a person’s phone number and address and nothing has ever happened with that to my family so it is interesting that I thought that way. Thanks for the realization Dean.

The last question is what we might like to see in the future when we are googled. I don’t know where my future digital footprint will take me but I hope/ can’t wait to see when you search my name in the future is Allison Gottselig under some school in the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division. Now that will be an exciting day 🙂

Ta Ta for now people and as always your comments are appreciated, enjoyed and accepted 🙂

-Allison