Family “History”

Patty, the Monday Fox , asked:
“If someone were to look at your internet search history, what conclusions might that person draw about you?”

 

That is truly a loaded question.

My mind is pretty eclectic. I like to know. I like to learn. I have always enjoyed research. Most of my life I have read with a dictionary at hand; words which I  have not known get looked up, foreign phrases that  I did not know get looked  up, people, places, things that are not familiar always get looked  up.

I have a house full of reference books. I have trouble resisting a good one or an old one. I inhaled my family’s World Book Encyclopedia when I was a kid.

So, with this background above, when I met a cerebral young man, we became fast friends.  When we got married, we combined our personal books and have bought many more of them over the years. Our house is literally filled with books on just about every subject in the world.

But, let’s face it, the internet is just too quick, tempting, and convenient, not to mention that with enough searching, the info is current and has more than I could ever find enough books to cover.

(Immediate thesaurus with instantaneous links to a word’s synonyms’ own synonyms?  Oh, Baby, come to Mama!)

 

The PC  hooked up to the internet is hardwired in the heart of the house, which is where we had put our first computer for easy access, and  because we had young sons. We wanted to keep a sharp eye on what  they were accessing, (which didn’t work when they were teens and a  friend who was fairly wild stay overnight). Everyone  who enters the house uses that computer.

And as soon as anyone gets on, it is my Google account that signs in. Therefore, not only do I look up whatever I run across that I don’t know, want to know more about, or that interests me, it picks up whatever The Husband, Sons, Grandkids, the occasional Daughter-in-Law, (or Ex-D-in-L), extended family member or guest  happen to look up when they are here; it’s all under my name, in “my” search history on Google, Firefox, or any other search engine, but goes to that computer.

Just the YouTube video history is unbelievable!

To top it off, when we able visit The Brother and we’d see an old actor  on TV classic westerns or something about history came up when he talked with The Husband, they would tell me to pull out my phone and look things up. The Husband got so used to that, that now he has me watch TV with my smartphone nearby for reference, (he still runs on a flip phone). I run Google on that and it is synced to my account on the computer.

So, what could anyone infer from my search history?

That I am a not only a word-nerd who is a true foody, interested in books of every genre, authors and who likes to listen to audiobooks, podcasts and music from old rock, to pop to opera, but it would seem that I like high church music, chamber music, heavy metal, and current rock, plus Christian rock, and that I not only like cross-over country, but deep country and bluegrass. They would think that I am not only concerned with diverse areas from geography, weather phenomena all over the world, the foods/culture of many places, the Caribbean, boats, forts, (it might be inferred that I was planning a trip), jewelry, (one might infer that I had won the lottery), other odd ropics for stories like magicians and magic shows shows,  but also that I Facebook with friends aged from children to 80s, (complete liberals to ultraconservatives, conspiracy freaks to the completely close-minded, optimists to pessimists, religious fanatics to atheists). I seem to be interested in judging rollerskates vs rollerblades, differnces in birds, motorcycle types, vitamins and minerals, radiation, what oil filter /tranny fluid pressure is needed for whoever’s car is in the driveway at the time, the leadership of  churches, classic cars, clothing from those age appropriate  for people in their 60s to questionably appropriate attire for teenagers), religious prophesies, kitchen  appliances, current other ‘bad guys’ in the world.

A person very likely might believe that I always want to know more about astronomy,  plants, civil rights, art, the human body, anything to do with history/historic battles, whatever serious disease  or possible plague may overtake us, the lifecycle of opossums and chipmunks, what China is  up to, the 1950, to be able to identify snakes,to translate many different foreign words, past and present politics,  all world religions, hairstyles, simple online games, highly involved video games’ minutiae, the current pandemic, pop culture/pop culture items, pickup trucks, crafting, skin care, all the history of the world, glitzy, girly items, tomboy items,  spies, all TV and movie trivia, peace initiatives,  hairstyles, archaeological finds, Sherman vs Pershing tanks, rock and stones, Nuclear missiles,  firearms and ballistics, (hence the ‘loaded questions’ reference).

When all the family and some guest were in, these and more, (like Breakdancing), showed up in my history within a holiday weekend.

With all of this on under my search history, it would appear that I have even more facets to my (possibly insanely) diverse mind than is true.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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