Respecting our Google-y Overlords

So the internet is a scary place, is it not?

It’s full of information and articles.
It has art and advice and entertainment.
But it’s also full of some pretty personal stuff.

One of the best pieces of advice I got when I was applying to college came from my totally awesome AP Stats teacher. He was really dry-humored, sarcastic and a little bit mean, which is basically a formula for being my favorite teacher.
This was a class with an interesting mix of, 1. People who had never taken an AP class before and were in way over their heads. 2. People who didn’t want to take AP Calc but still cared. And 3. People who were taking it as an elective, who were really good at the class but didn’t care at all.

He took a day off from teaching us AP Stat to tell us to go home and Google ourselves.

So my high school had this absolutely disgusting tradition called “Road Rally” which has (allegedly) been discontinued. It was only done by a tiny subset of the senior class, but basically it was a XXX rated scavenger hunt.
The school tried (and failed) every year to stop it from happening.

Because what happened?
Every year, without fail, a video or picture would get leaked. Meaning everyone would see it. And let’s just say that, considering nobody is 18 yet in October of senior year with NY cutoffs being in December, the nature of these videos could have people placed in jail.

Now this in an incredibly extreme case. An incredibly extreme case.

But that’s not to say that you may not have things up on the internet that you would rather the world not see. Make sure to change your Facebook settings so you can’t be Googled. Same for things like Pinterest, Etsy, and YouTube.

Set your twitter on private, and delete any photos you’d rather an adcom not see from your Instagram.

Make sure your Tumblr can’t be traced to you if it has personal things. Especially if it has admissions things (if an adcom Googles you, finds your admissions blog, and see’s that you classify their school as a “safety” what do you think will happen?)

I talk about applying to grad school from time to time on here, but I never mention schools by name. There’s a reason for that.

So when I was in high school, if you Googled my name, a few things came up.

My facebook (which was open because it was very clean and polished… it still sort of is). An article written about a play I was in. An article about national merit written by my school (where they listed everyone who was commended, semifinalist, and finalist). The website for my drama club. My forensics ranking. And that’s about it.

Now if you Google me?
Basically the same thing. My profile on the prospect. This website. My contributions to relay for life this year. Some clubs I’m in at College. But mostly the woman in Florida who shares my name.

I still come off as likable, fairly intelligent, and most importantly, normal.

Be careful what can be traced back to you. Be careful of your online presence.

Because you want an adcom to Google you and go “Oh cool here’s an article about that thing they wrote and essay on “ or “Oh wow here’s a picture of them from prom on their school’s website, they’re really really ridiculously good-looking”

They do not want to see a picture of you smoking a bong and flipping off the camera.

Be mindful that things like Google exist in our world. Be careful everyone. See what comes up.