No, this post is not about, ahem, farting.
Nor is it about gorging yourself on bacon.
Nor is it about anything, um, sexual.
Blargh. I hate even typing the word “sexual,” which, I think, stems from my worry that my mother will someday stumble on this blog and see that I typed it down and actually published it. Prude, much? (Me, not my mom. Nothing fazes her.)
Anyway let’s start over.
I went on a girl date last night.
Not like a “date” date, where we were looking to get together. This is part of my quest to find friends.
A mutual acquaintance (who does not live in our city) introduced us. This girl – my date – emailed me a few weeks ago and we planned to get together.
She has a lot of things going for her, from my perspective.
- She emailed me! Without being a chicken about it!
- She has a husband – which is not a necessity. But it’s nice, because it means double dates.
- She lives here, in my city.
- Her husband’s job also keeps him away from home a lot.
- She likes ice cream! (We agreed to meet at an ice cream shop for ice cream! What a fun date idea! Although there is no alcohol involved. Which means I’ll be nervous and jittery AND have a sugar high.)
Anyway, this post is not about our date. Because I am still over-analyzing every single second of it to see if I made an ass of myself. (Likely.) (NO IT WAS NOT A REAL DATE.)
What I really want to talk about is this:
When she first contacted me, I pretty much immediately Googled her. And then Facebooked her.
Because I had to know what she looked like and where she worked and if we had any friends in common.
Listen, that’s NORMAL, right?
I mean, that’s what Google and Facebook are there for. Right?
So my question is…
Do you do this? When you meet someone new… or schedule an appointment or meeting or “date” with someone… do you Google/Facebook them?
And if you do, do you admit it to the people you Googled/Facebooked?
(Why is this all sounding very dirty? It’s NOT.)
And, whether you do or don’t, would you be creeped out if someone you just met came right out and said, “Oh yeah, I Googled/Facebooked you so I knew what you’d like”?
Please, enlighten me to your Internet stalking pre-date looker-upper-ing activities.
I don’t do this-I never even thought of this. Great, you just made me more of an internet stalker cause now I’m gonna have to do this to all my friends and people I know. 😀
Well, did anything good pop up on her?
I never thought to do that either! But, recently, when I was applying for a position in the town we are moving to, the director sent me her picture and asked me to send one of myself and Hubs.
I thought it was really weird at first, but it was nice to know what she looked like before we went up there (and that she wasn’t a creep ha).
PS-I’m really jealous you have a friend. I’ve yet to make one here, though I’ve tried!
I haven’t.. just because it’s easy to get a wrong impression from stuff you read online. I’d rather clock their personal vibe / emotional connection with me first if they’re going to be a friend, and you can’t really get that from what you see online.. but I think I must be a stalker anyway somewhat, because I read your blog every day and think you’re funny. he!
I need to make friends too. I don’t ever google people but my sister facebooked to she who her college roommate would be. And my husband googles craigslist sellers. He found out that one of them was a sex offender, scary!
Haha…. Girl Date… love it!
I google people all the time, for example the preppy boyfriends sister started dating a new guy in August, and I googled him. I wanted to understand what he did so I could generate conversation about his job over family dinner, and I wanted to see what he looked like, and the fact that I had googled him once helped me to find his work email address when I needed his help planning her surprise 30th b-day party…
However, I don’t generally tell people I google them. If he had asked me how I found is work email address I would have said, “google” but I don’t volunteer that b/c it does sort of make you sound pseudo stalker-ish.
Also, I have to acknowledge that many companies google people all the time, and that you should always google the company and the hiring manager before going on an interview. It’s considered proper interview etiquette to be well-informed about the company before your interview. I have a girlfriend who works in HR for Deutsch Banc and a huge part of her job is to google current employees and applicants to see what kind of stuff they are posting on the internet and how or if that reflects on Deutsch Banc. Because of this I occasionally google myself just to make sure that my online profile is okay!
Hmmm I never thought to google someone. Which is weird because I ALWAYS wonder if people will google me and find my blog.
But I understand the impulse. Friend-dating is scary, and weird, and uncomfortable, and slightly strange and so if you can get a one up and know that they ran track, or like to party, or look like a troll, you can plan accordingly.
I think it’s more ‘digital age’ and less ‘stalker’ in my book.
Um yes. You are so not alone on this one. Friend-dating is so hard/awkward/weird enough without walking into it blind!!
I am pretty sure you did NOT make an ass of yourself… so simmer down on that one!!
Secondly – I totally internet stalk. That’s what it’s there for right? Right! Perfecto.. so now that we have that all figured out – you’re good to go 🙂
This is a tricky question.
If I’ve never met the person, yes, I’ll google/facebook them. I won’t tell them until I know them a little better.
If I happen to meet someone out and about, and end up meeting up later, I probably won’t bother.
I like putting faces to names so I think this is innocent behaviour.
haha facebooking someone before you meet is standard protocol now, don’t worry!
Um no. And if I found out someone googled me I would feel slightly violated. FB seems fine, but google. I mean you can find out where people live on spokeo. As for appointments and dr.s and all kinds of stuff like that I totally do! But friends, give the girl a chance before you find out she was a loser in high school and cost the game…
I think you are awesome, with nothing to google 😉 For some reason I feel like you can post whatever you want, I can comment whatever I want, and we still remain “cyber frinds” heh
Oh, I totally do that. Everyone I know does that. Even before, like, meeting someone to sell something from Craiglist we do that. I think it might partly be a Bay Area thing though, because everyone IS Google-able and all you have to do is bust out your iPhone or whatever to look things up on the spot.
That said, though … I probably wouldn’t admit it. At least definitely not volunteer the information. But maybe if asked.
How was the friend date??
I usually do a Google search and think it’s pretty normal.
That being said, I wouldn’t bring anything up in conversation that I found out unless they won a Nobel Prize or something. If someone did that to me, I’d find it creepy.
Is that a double standard? I’d do it but not talk about it? Sure, but that’s the way I am.
I met my brother’s girlfriend this past weekend for the first time. I had a few glasses of wine and then slipped and said something that made it so obvious that I facebook stalked her so that I then just admitted to facebooking her. My brother was not amused!
All of your readers are simultaneously googling/and facebook stalking you as we speak.
Just kidding!!!
Since I am not on facebook (primarily since I have a very HIGH tendency to stalk) I’m left to google people. I do it all the time. New bosses, new friends, co-workers….it’s a sickness….I know…..
I never thought to do it for a potential friend…hmmmmmm…TOTALLY did it to the hubs!
Well, the government, the police and the FBI all check out the Facebook pages of unknowns, why the hell shouldn’t we all be FB stalkers?? LOL
Di
The Blue Ridge Gal