Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Too Much Instant Information....

Lachlan Wolfers on the downside of Google-everything :

My licence to engage in mild exaggeration has been put in jeopardy. Recently, I was boasting of my sporting prowess in a triathlon, explaining how I had completed the swim leg as fast as Michael Phelps, then cycled at the speed of Lance Armstrong, and then finished it off with a run that would have made Rob de Castella proud. My (so-called) friend Google-searched my time and discovered I finished in a measly 227th place, and then proceeded to embarrass me in front of a large audience.

Ouch. And here's something that never occurred to me before, probably because it doesn't apply in my case as I'm 1) not single and 2) I'm one of the lucky few whose (rented) home does not appear on Google Street View :

Whereas previously I could explain to prospective girls that I lived in a gigantic house overlooking the beach and drove a sports car, now they can simply Google my address and discover I live in a bedsit at the back of my mother's house and drive a beaten-up old Holden.
Double ouch.