Today in class I am reminded that my name is a common one. Many people share both my first and last name and are not related to me in any form. The only exception is by searching for Holloway and Michigan. This search will find my fathers position and not Me. Only by knowing my internet persona will anyone even begin to be able to track me down. For now this is a safe and simple level of notoriety. It is also something that I will wish to break by the time I leave my years of college behind. As an artist, we live and die more prominently by our name than many other forms of careers. We survive because we make connections to others who share our field and require exposure in order to achieve that. We want to be found by Google when people search for our name. I in time intend to build a website for myself that can showcase my work and allow companies to contact me. I want to be able to be found. This is a business and I must reach the largest market I can.
While I personally have to draw attention to my online self because of my chosen field. Many instead may suffer by the attention of online searches. People may not have controlled The image that they present to others due to online images or blog entries. Companies do check into the online backgrounds of potential employees in order to choose the best members they can find. Logically then if your online image is that of a out of control youth then your chances have been drastically reduced. This problem however can be avoided easily if you just take some time and think through how you wish to be presented. Controlling also what is said about you is also an important part of this. This does not mean that you must stop absolutely everything, but instead it is best to be aware of what is being said about you. Simply being aware will help put you in the position where It will not matter if your blogs and postings are found in a unwanted search. You will have nothing to hide and your image will carry you though.
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I agree with you that if you have a clean record, that is what will show up on google. There would be no reason for anything else to be on there. I also notice after reading many posts that people mention being "an out of control youth" or "photographed at a house party" or anything like that they immediately classify it as bad. Employers were not born yesterday; they have also had a college life which included having fun. There is a certain limit however that should not be reached as far as photos or comments or videos or the like. It is the site's owner that must take care of that and be sure to show your personality as well as your responsibility.
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