When I Google myself, the first things that pop up are my personal social medias, all of which are private, and a Pinterest account I forgot the password to in middle school. There are also a lot of old projects that I did in middle and high school, as well as social medias of distant family members and people with the same last name as me. On the last few pages of the result, there is only one accurate search result of me, and it is a newspaper article of all the seventh graders who made honor roll that year. These results do not really reflect who I am very much, as there is really no modern representation of who I am on the Google Search page. Most of the top results are private, personal social medias that I do not post much on or business ventures of those who share the same last name as me. Most, if not all, accurate search results are almost exclusively from my time as a preteen in middle school. If someone that I just met were to Google me, it would not be a good way for them to perceive me. Potential employers may get the wrong idea of my personality and values and may look past me. Also, potential friends may think that I am immature and don’t have any passions because you can only find results from almost a decade ago. They would think that I was still interested in the things that I liked when I was 12 (thanks Pinterest) or they would take me as an Environmental Impact Assessment Specialist named Brian.
This website will help me control what the results will show up when people first Google me. I will be able to share with people my online identity in a way that does not reflect the ideas and attitudes of twelve-year-old me (again, thanks Pinterest). The Google Search page will, hopefully, soon have this website as one of the first results, so that those who Google me do not only have an archive of my academic and culinary adventures as a tween. Also with this website, I will be able to learn how to create and modify my online presence, whether it continue to be with this website or another online platform. I will develop the skills required to maintain a professional presence on the internet. And maybe, one day, that forgotten Pinterest password won’t come back to haunt me every time someone looks me up on Google.
