Oh how I'm bursting with things to say after a whole year of 'silence' and many memories that went unrecorded. (What got into me?!?!) 2010 became a year of the unspoken coolness because so many things happened!!! More updates on that some time appropriate.
After changing the layout of my blog and re-reading my precious archives yesterday (because I wanted to recall a date of event(s)in 2008), I realised how much I miss my blog! All my nonsense in electronic pages stored almost forever on the internet, if I let it!
I randomly decided to google my name this week and guess what I found:
1. Ok, not surprising, but my Facebook page was the top search result. But I'm also thinking, I am not the only person with my name with fb around... so why am I the first?
2. My old Friendster site. I have not touched that in YEARS since junior college. (sorry friendster, I have to downsize my electronic relations because I just don't have time to do everything.)
3. My Twitter account (That I don't use and should probably delete it.)
4. My LinkedIn account. (... *shrugs...)
3. A website that searches people by names and that generated 2 photos of me from fb and my picassa album repeated in different sizes, resolutions and cropping (Along with other people by the same name, of course.)
*By now, I was starting to get a little freaked out...
4. I FOUND 2 of my university final year reports in an archive in the school library (thankfully under lock and password key but it is still accessible to students).
5. I found 2 Trinitarian magazines with my name in almost fine print around the content pages because I had contributed (my very brilliant) photos for the soccer and netball inter-church tournaments. :)
6. I didn't see it this time round but my colleague found me on IMDb some time back... omg.
OK, maybe it's not that big a deal. It's not like i have some biography, or videos, or articles, or books, or news....
STILL. The above mentioned is yikes enough.
I was seriously astounded by how the internet can find all these occasional nitty online details of what I have done. (Not very much though. ha.)
It makes me think if I should start to be afraid of the internet for intruding into my life. (duh... I am ironically declaring this on an online blog.)
Given how long the internet and social websites has been around, it is truly late to 'worry' about all this now.
[HELLO.. Stone Age was that way back in time. Please come again.]
BUT shouldn't some of us be concerned if crooks and thieves steal our identity? Or, gasp! Murderers? (I blame crime movies for this paranoia.)
A colleague of mine had her IC stolen 2 weeks ago and that darn person has gone and caused havoc with that ill-gotten identity card. I don't dare imagine if we, the citizens of the safest and, DARE I say it, self-proclaimed honest country in the world, should be on edge constantly fearing the misuse and duplication of our own identity by others?
[That's already happening now, by the way... That Sony PS3 hack case earlier this year in the US headquarters has affected countries all over the world.]
There is a youtube documentary feature movie that can be downloaded for free called "Google Me". It's about a man who decided to meet up with people he could find with the same full name as himself by using the Google search engine. At the end of the show, he found 6 people in different continents and were willing to meet up with them after some form of contact, with details gotten either through Google, or some other way. They all had an awesome time together. Awesome.
I would love to start talking about this documentary but since the topic is about identity and being found, i shall return to point.
The point is, it is way easier to do things with all this electronic human exposure, for both good and bad.
You CAN find and be found by someone at the other end of the greenwich scale online!! They just need a full name, vague location/country and a phonebook. =S
So what should we do?
Unfortunately I have no solutions.
Some people want to be found because it is their shot to fame and fortune. Look at all those youtube star wonders. They wouldn't have gotten their big break if they didn't expose their talent to the world. Or people who wrote fantastic and highly educational websites and blogs that made the world smarter than yesterday.
Some people like being low profile. By that, it literally means less things to worry about. There would be nothing online that can 'harm' you because risk is near 0%. Partly also because less people know you. Normal people don't hurt those they don't know... unless it's an accident. :(
So it all boils down to what you're willing to face in your life. That's all.
I hope I do not inspire conspiracy of any kind after reading this post. May God be with you.
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