Data Body (or another reason I keep this blog)

Do a search on your name or someone else’s name. This is an electronic portrait of you. What do you find? Does it look like you? Sound like you? Is any of it first person? How much of what you find is actually under your control?

Some of us have parallel electronic lives – a data body, if you will. A living, breathing, changing, growing, biography made up of credit card purchases, contact information, electronic records, and on and on. It takes many forms and different people have access to it – buy it, sell it, or get some of it for free. It seems to have become common practice for employers to do a Google search on job applicants.

I can’t have complete control over this data body, but I can do my best to influence the image – to contribute to the creation, upkeep, and perception of the digital me – Pattie Belle Hastings aka Cyborg Mommy.