Share This

The New Millenium Question: To Google or Not to Google

So, I Googled my husband before our first date. And I also Googled the guy before him. And the guy before the guy before him. The guy before the guy before the guy — you get what I’m saying. Googling begets Googling to the point that I never even considered NOT Googling after I Googled my first date upon advice received by Marie Claire (or was it Cosmo?) in 2002. In fact, I’d often get annoyed when a guy had such a simple name and job that it made him impossible to Google.

In another fact, I still judge the guy that had an uncommon name and NO Google footprint sort of harshly. How does one make so little impact as to not have a Google footprint at all? I mean I could understand if he was purposefully living off the grid — that would have been cool — but he wasn’t. So freaky, right?

So, given my history, I was a little taken aback by last weekend’s New York Times Modern Love column in, in which the writer relates a horror story of a first date that she went on with someone she had Googled heavily beforehand. Basically, it caused all sorts of problems because she couldn’t keep straight what she had learned on Google and what he had told her when they first met at a bar.This all ended in much embarrassment and her vowing to never Google a date beforehand again.

Having met my husband at a bar, I actually recognized the situation. I Googled him before our first date, and it seemed like I was pretending not to already be privy to the information he was slow-feeding me — some of it major — for months and months, so as not to come off stalkery.

So to Google or not to Google that is the question:

I say, yes, go forth and Google. It’s basic research and shows that you care. Also, if you have an uncommon name that yields a ton of results (like Ernessa T. Carter) then it only seems fair that you get to Google everybody else.  But, Joanna Pearson, the chyck from last weekend’s Modern Love column would beg to differ. So read her take on the issue here. And let me know what you think in the comments below.

.