Sunday, April 6, 2008

Confession: Googlaholism

A couple of years ago, my Michael taught me how to google people. It can be quite fun and informative!

Last night I stayed up until an uncharacteristically-late-for-me hour googling almost every person I could think of from my former life (read: before motherhood). First, of course, I googled myself. My maiden-named self is virtually non-existent. Where did she go? Is that some kind of metaphor for what happens to a woman who chooses to devote her life to her family? I really don't think so. But Google evidently does. There were tons of hits on my married self and only one on my maiden name. I kind of wanted to make an addendum to that one hit that read see also Mendy Hunter.

Some of my other googling was quite successful though. And, boy, did I get creative! I found out what my best friend from BYU's freshman year boyfriend it doing. Now, that's important, isn't it? I didn't stop there, either. I googled the girl I sat by in French class, an ex or two of my Michael's and even the boyfriend I had in high school (although I actually misspelled his name--how pathetic is that?) Sometimes I think about random people and wonder what they're up to and if their lives have turned out for them how they'd hoped, like mine has for me. According to Google, some of these people are doing well... and I'm happy to know about it.


12 comments:

Corinne said...

HA! I do that ALL THE TIME. It's totally addicting :)

Amber said...

I never really Google people I know, only celebrities. And usually it's when I am trying to figure out if they are really pregnant or not or really engaged or not.

Jess said...

At least you can find yourself. I don't exist at all with my maiden name and with my married name - do you know how many Jessica Browns there are in this world?? Add in my middle name, and you still find pages and pages of people with the same name that aren't me. Talk about a loss of individualism. I'd like to google people I've known in the past, but my memory is so poor I can't remember anyone's name!

Christie said...

I never have any success. If I google myself I always get stuff about wall frames. :-( Oh well.

Cami said...

Now I am very curious . . . shall I try it?

Sally said...

I do this too, Miss Mendy. I haven't ever found any real gems this way, though. Alas. It seems like I'm close to who/what I googled, but not quite on the mark, so I never get any good dirt. I'm glad that someone shares my addiction though.

Tracy said...

You've got me addicted to googling old boyfriends. Chris asked if he could look for old girlfriends -- I think not. Anyway, thanks for giving me yet another thing to do besides my work or cleaning my house.

supersonicjan said...

Yes. Googling is the new stalking. No longer do I have to drive past peoples' houses slowly in hopes to see some good stuff, I can find almost everything I want online.

Joni said...

I googled myself and found hate mail. Yes! I'd written letters to the editor and they'd been reposted and mocked. It was a bit traumatic. I do have fun looking up people I know. Facebook has been addicting for that, too.

Sally said...

So Mendy, when and why do you come to my frigid, barren state again? More details! Email me.

whitney allison said...

When I googled "whitney lindseth" it only brought up links to Toni's (Lindsey's sister's) blog. When I googled whitney lindseth the first thing it brought up was an article Shawn wrote about Whitney Houston. Awesome.

Deb said...

that's awesome, mendy! i found a few people with my maiden name, so SOMEONE is using it. just not me. :)

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