Google as a Part of Speech - Activity Reflection #3

Hello, Readers out in Blog-Land!

Have you ever “Googled” yourself?  Type your name in quotes in the Google search box and see what happens.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.  No, I’m serious.  Go ahead.  I have to write this blog anyway, so you might as well start the search while I’m typing.   So, what did you find? 

When I “Googled” myself earlier this week, I was surprised that there were over 110 results from my “Christi Scheirer” search - I had no idea!  (I think it is so funny that “Google” is a verb, and we have incorporated all forms of “Google” into the vernacular:  “Have you Googled that?”  “I am Googling this.” The same is becoming true for Facebook:  “We are Facebook official” was how my nephew announced that he had a new girlfriend.  And who hasn’t heard the term, “Twittered”?  Ok, back to “Googling”…)   Most of the results of my self-surf were work-related or had to do with my Graphic Design and Multimedia certificates.  Several links were press releases or newspaper articles about the time that I took over as editor for our college’s online art and literary e-zine.  Some were from those MyLife-type people search engines.  I had a few social networking results (Facebook, Linked In) and a few links to the One Million Masterpiece, where I had added my own little square of art to the world’s biggest collaborative arts project.  In addition, I was pleasantly surprised that my question (and his answer) was published in one of Roger Ebert’s books, Questions for the Movie Answer Man.

I was pretty happy to see that my presence on Google is pretty positive, and I am recognized for my profession and for my artwork.  I think I come across as a hard worker, a creative person, and one who is dedicated to the arts and to education.  That is how I want to be known.  That is how I would like my students to know me; that is how I would like my employers to know me; that is how I would like my family and friends to know me; that is how I AM.

It scares me to think that I could get fired (or not even hired) from a job for what I write or post on the Internet.  Just recently, I read about a young woman, Stacy Snyder, who was allegedly let go from a student-teacher program because she posted a picture of herself on her MySpace page, in costume, holding an unidentified drink.  While she did write, “Drunken Pirate” as the caption, “whether she was serious can’t be determined by looking at the photo” (Stross, 2007).  In an excerpt from a document we were provided in my graduate class, I read about a woman, Heather Armstrong, who got fired because she vented about her coworkers on her blog.  While she did protest her firing, saying she hadn’t mentioned any one or the company by name, in the end, she said she knew the risks, and “I made my bed; I’ll lie in it” (Solove, 39).  Many other workers have had this experience – getting fired after posting on their personal blogs, social networking sites, or in emails.  I wonder whether this kind of action is a new trend or have employers been checking up on us in other ways, and we just don’t know it.  Further inquiry into the subject led me to an article about Henry Ford, who “in his day … maintained a ‘Sociological Department’ staffed with investigators who visited the homes of all but the highest-level managers. Their job was to dig for information about the employee’s religion, spending and savings patterns, drinking habits and how the worker ‘amused himself’” (Stross, 2007).  So it seems as though this sort of thing has been happening for decades.  What is different now, I think, is that the media is “all over it.”

So, I go back to my Google search and really look at what I have put out there.  I check over my Facebook page and my desolate MySpace page to see how I would look to an employer.  My pictures look good, and my posts are pretty standard, mostly positive, and rarely ever work-related.  I check around some of the other results and I am pretty satisfied that I am okay in that area. I know that what we put out there on the Internet is out there FOREVER, and for some reason, the old diet quote runs through my head:  “A moment on the lips – forever on my hips.”  I realize that this is synonymous with what we post online:  “A moment in our fillintheblankwithblog,FacebookPage,YouTubevideo,Flickrphoto,etc,etc,etc, forever on the Internet.”  Doesn’t quite have the same snazzy rhyme and rhythm, but I think it fits my point.  In a few years, I might want to get a new job somewhere, and I want to be sure my online record is clean.  JJ Jarrell, president of the North Central Florida Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management and human resource manager for Performance Food Group, states, “While potential employers shouldn't use affiliations with social networks or your personal posts as reasons not to hire you, why take the risk?” (Clark, 2011).  It makes an impression.  What impression do I want to make? So is it right or is it fair that we are under such scrutiny in our private lives?  I am not sure if it is right or fair, but to me, it is what it is:  Employers are doing it, and I have no other choice than to present myself in the most positive way I can.  But, why wouldn’t I want that anyway?

This week, in my graduate class, we were given the assignment to create an “About Me” page.  I made one for my blog here and one for my Google profile.  With all the articles and textbook pages I reviewed this week, I decided to be proactive in how I am presented on the Internet:  I thought about how I want to be viewed, and made sure that my online presence matches my offline presence.  Put the positive and professional out there and be known for that.  That’s kind of how I am in person anyway.  Boring?  Maybe.  Safe?  Maybe.  Smart?  Yes.  I live in an age where Big Brother (or Big Boss) could be looking over my shoulder.  What do I want him (her) to see?

I think it goes back to our topic on ethics from a few weeks ago.  I do not recall, offhand, if the subject of the teacher’s personal and professional integrity came up in our reading. (I have since read a lot of articles and blogs about this subject, and I am hazy as to whether our textbook, Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom, covered it.) Irregardless, I think that in future editions, it should be a subject in that chapter.  “Employees, teachers, and students have an obligation to use computers responsibly and not abuse the power computers provide” (Shelly, 503).  This statement, to me, pertains to computer usage both inside and outside of the school walls.  Regardless of what we want to do, (and how much we argue “freedom of speech!) we, as educators, are in the public eye, and therefore live in somewhat of a fishbowl.  I grew up with a father for a minister.  I was a “preacher’s kid” and felt a lot of pressure to be well-behaved, quiet, and obedient, because that was what was expected of me by society.  As an educator, we have to live up to the same standards that society has created for us – to be upstanding citizens with high morals and “proper” behavior.  But who decides what proper behavior is anyway?  And, again, is it right?  Is it fair?  And, again, it is what it is, and I accept that. 

References

Clark, A. (2011, February 18). Watch what you post: Your boss also is watching. The Gainesville Sun.  Retrieved from http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110218/ARTICLES/110219428

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010). Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Solove, D.J. (2007).  Information, liberation, and constraint. In The Future of Reputation.  (Chapter 2).  Retrieved from http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text/futureofreputation-ch2.pdf

Stross, R. (2007, December 30).  How to lose your job on your own time. The New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/business/30digi.html?ex=1356670800&en=55ef6410d3cac28e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss