The hilarity of paranoia

The unemployed have a new set of pests, the social media coaches. "Pests" is a bit unfair, since much of their information is at least thought-provoking. However, all of them are inclined to open with "have you Googled yourself lately? Do you know what others are saying about you?"

Well, excuse me, that's a rather private topic, isn't it? I never Google myself in public ;-)

Having some acquaintance with paranoia, I have heeded these calls to angst and fear and set up a Google alert. The results show one thing I already knew, that I'm essentially invisible on the Web. I've been perfectly happy with that until now, but I'm getting to accept that invisibility sends as bad a message as the archetypical party pictures on Facebook. It's an especially bad message when one is an old fart. It suggests that one sits around all day next to a rotary dial phone, watching Medicare goods commercials on daytime TV and preparing resumes on a manual typewriter.

Having a name that is vanishingly rare in the USA, but fairly common elsewhere in the former British Empire, the Google Alert results aren't quite what the social media authorities would have their audiences expect. Of course, they assume that you're Jane Adams or Henry Smith.

I'm beginning to collect the hits and if there's bandwidth on my Web site in progress, I'll link to the list. This is my favourite of the week:

Twitter / David Bryn Evans: Sam Allardyce for West Ham ...
Sam Allardyce for West Ham job = half empty stadium .... :(
twitter.com/Upton_Scar/status/14158404702

This bloke hardly counts, since the first name is different, but he's a right good hand with Photoshop. Maybe I should try something of the sort to add a little drama to my LinkedIn profile.