I’ve Been Googled*

Yesterday I learned that of my biggest fears about teaching finally happened: I’ve been Googled.

I underestimated my apparently internet-savvy class who, I assume, were bored over the weekend and decided to Google their favourite student teacher. Thankfully I am a wholesome young lady and there are no clandestine photos of yours truly all over the internet.

However, they DID find something. As I popped in to chat with my former AT over lunch a student came running in the room nearly breathless with excitement to see that I was there.

Student: “Mrs. Shop Girl! I saw your video!”

(Confusion settles over me)

Me: “Pardon me? What video?”

Student: “Your wedding video! The one with the sad song and all the pictures!”

(Confusion is replaced by anxiety and fear)

Me: (Trying to laugh it off) “Oh really? How did you find that?”

Student: “Oh, I don’t know. So-and-so showed it to me.”

(Trying not to panic as my AT raised an inquisitive eyebrow and I realize more than one student has Googled me… which moves me to frantically try to remember if YouTube is in anyway connected to here, my most secret of not-so-secret places)

Me: “Oh. Ok!” (Turn my back to end the conversation. I was done.)

As the student left the room I nonchalantly explained that my oh-so-talented sister had made a video of our wedding photos for the Hubster and I on our last anniversary, hoping to keep the panic from my voice / the raised eyebrow would settle back to it’s regular position. As I watched the eyebrow slowly lower I deftly changed the subject and left shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately I don’t get wireless on my side of the school, so I had to wait in anxiety until 3:30 before I could get home and Google myself to see exactly what was out there. The video did indeed pop up on the second Google search page, and I realized that it connected to my sister’s page where a plethora of home movies awaited. If that wasn’t bad enough, I also found out that it connected to the YouTube page I had made for here, my blog. The one place I hope to keep anonymous and safe. For the life of me I couldn’t remember if I had placed a link to my blog on the YouTube site. I spent 20 minutes checking every nook and cranny and was relieved to find that I am smarter than I give myself credit for. (Not too smart, just a bit brilliant)

I was still disappointed that I had missed that though… after all my ranting and raving in September when I nearly had a panic attack about security and privacy (which you can read about here, here, and LISTEN here!) and even made a new secure blog on WordPress (which I clearly didn’t keep… haha) I thought the internet was clear of things attached to my real name. *sigh*

So, as I am a self-proclaimed worrier, I decided to purge the internet of all things associated with the me behind Shop Girl… and that meant one thing: breaking up with YouTube.

This year has been a year of breakups for me… I broke up with chocolate in August and have been clean for the past 8 months. I hope to go an entire year before I even consider eating it again.

Next came my breakup with Perez Hilton. If you know me, this might surprise you. Last year I was best buddies with Perez, checking his website umpteen times a day (I shall keep the real number a secret so I don’t seem like a total stalker) because I hearted his light-hearted mocking of celebrities. Thennnnn he got political. After Prop 8 I felt like he became a huge hypocrite–he opposed Prop 8 because it propagated hate, but when it was passed he spread so much hate toward the LDS church. It stopped being funny and became mean. So, we broke up in November and I haven’t looked back. (Suddenly I have all this free time on my hands! Who knew?!)

And now today, I said farewell to YouTube. I deleted each of my videos one by one and deleted my account. It really wasn’t sad for me as it has been a long time coming. As you may or may not know, Warner Music and YouTube had a lil spat and Warner has yanked the rights of using their music on YouTube. Translation? Any video that has a Warner song in it is either muted or pulled from the site. Fun, huh?

Spart and I have been increasingly unimpressed with the deteriorating state of YouTube and today we decided enough was enough. I have left, and she is following suit shortly.

Dear YouTube,

I have no more love for you.

No longer yours,

Shop Girl*