Bread crumbs through a forest, to digital footprints.

In the children's story Hanzel and Gretel, bread crumbs are left so the potentially Hanzel and Gretel can find there way back home. In our society today some parents would like if their child left digital footprints to be left. Not for the child's sake, but for other people(who may be searching for that child's)sake. Will Richardson the author of "Footprints in the Digital Age" says he would like his daughter to be Googled well. He believes that someone in her future will search for her and come up with unimpressive results(if in fact she isn't well Googled).  This idea of his gave me a somewhat unsettling feeling. I don't necessarily think that at young ages children should be exposed to so much that they are Googleable.  It takes away that simplicity and innocence of childhood. Parents shouldn't want their child to be Googleable, especially when there are so many creepy people out there on the web. I know that Will Richardson's daughter is 11, but that's still young.  I realize that in his article he talks about older kids. Being well Googled at a certain age is great. When I meet some one new I often find myself "Facebook stalking" them. "Facebook stalking" may be the younger generations version of the Google search. 

Will Richardson also makes the good point that whatever we write on the internet is able to be copied and sent. People can twist our words any which way they want to. This is one of the main things parents and educators find so hard to understand. They didn't grow up with kids texting there friends all day and night. Nor were they updating their status on Facebook with every new thought. This constant writing and posting of copyable information leaves a lot of room for cruelty.  

My favorite part of Richardson's article  was when he used the analogy of children driving a bus with teachers in the back going any where they please without any direction. Richardson points out how this generation, my generation, are the first children ever to lead such a huge technological shift. We need help and direction, but where can we get it if we're the leaders of this shift? Our elders can give us some advice but we, the children, have to figure out this new way of life. This lifestyle is allowing us to become the most connected generation in history. It's not our parents or educators job to make us "Well Googled." It's ours.