Googlism -- found in nexstarman's journal

[capri0mni]

According to Googlism: "ann magill is unable to work for medical reasons" and nothing more.

While this is true (I receive Social Security Disability Insurance because of my cerebral palsy), I'm not sure which part of Google's database "Googlism" searches.

When I put "ann magill" in Google's own search window, the first hit did indeed refer to little ol' me. It's an article I wrote ages ago: Magic in the Modern World. The email addy is at least 6 years defunct, and I've lost all documents of the novel mentioned in the mini-bio at the end... I think the last time I actually worked on it 12 years ago (Which dates the piece)... But I still believe the basic thesis of the article, and it's a heck of a lot more revealing of who I am than: "ann magill is unable to work for medical reasons" And then, on the second page of Google's hit, there's another link that's actually about me, here: Pro-Fun Round Robins: Credits. On the third page of hits, there was a link to this online discussion that I had completely forgotten about until I did this little Google test just now -- no date on the webpage... figures.

And yet, "Googlism" complete missed out on my writerly or paganly sides. I suspect its database searches for employment history (though, since it accurately pegged nexstarman as an amatuer astronomer, maybe it also tracks records of stuff bought. Since I don't work, that's all the search engine could come up with -- defined by what I cannot do.

Such is the danger of reducing people to their economic value.... How many become virtually invisible?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.gov.pe.ca/humanrights/inquirydecisions/magill.php3

They got that from the above URL. Nothing more sinister than that. They simply do a search on "xxx yyy is". You'll see that there is only one hit for "ann magill is".

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

They simply do a search on "xxx yyy is". You'll see that there is only one hit for "ann magill is".

Yes, I realized, this morning, after a few hours sleep, that that is how the search engine works. I did that googlism thing at 2am, tired, and yet unable to sleep, and seeing that come back as my only definition made it harder to get to sleep. So I did the Google search to reaffirm my identity. And it worked. :-)

However, my point about how limiting it is to define people by their economic status still stands, I think.

(*Clicks* on link).

heh. And ironically, that one hit does not refer to me. If there was another sentence in there along the lines of "Ann Magill is suing Atlantic Turbine." I might have realized that.

Ah, well.

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Such is the danger of reducing people to their economic value.... How many become virtually invisible?

I'm *whinging* so much that even though I've been mostly unemployed and stuff, the whinging gets through;)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

You'll never be invisible, Auntie! no way...