Google yourself

Few months ago, a good friend of mine was looking for a new job.  We were disscusing her possibilities when suddenly she got a phone call for a job interview in a very important transnational company.

After according the date of the interview and hanging up the phone, the next thing she said was “Can you lend me your computer? I have to google myself right now! These companies always google you, and I don’t want to loose this job because of a stupid photo or a bad comment about me.”

Later on I google myself just for curiosity.  A lot of other girls with my name appeared in the search, but the reality was that, I actually did find some information about me that I have never seen before.

This shows the negative and positive effects that search engines like Google can cause to your online reputation. On one hand, if your career depends on your exposure, Google can be a great tool (Li, 2010).  On the other hand, if your career depends on having a low-profile, Google can endanger your privacy and therefore, your actual or future job.

We are so immersed in the apparent freedom that internet provides us, that we sometimes forget that internet has also created new surveillance methods in our workplace (Castells, 2001). In the network society, having a record of our online reputation must become a cyclic activity because all the information that can be found online can stay there forever.

As Castells points out, ‘If you do not care about the networks, the networks will care about you, anyway’ (Castells, 2001:282).

REFERENCES

Castells, Manuel. (2001) ‘The Politics of the Internet II: Privacy and Liberty in Cyberspace’ in The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.168-187

Li, Chiseng. (2010, September). How to Un-Google Yourself. Privacy Journal, 36(11), 1,4-6.  Retrieved October 4, 2010, from ProQuest Computing. (Document ID: 2150833531).