Dave Pell, on the excellent Tweetage Wasteland, writes about doctors Googling their patients:

During a recent session, I brought up this topic with my own shrink. He rarely interacts with the web and is as renown for his cynicism about academic essays as he is for being an excellent doctor. I fully expected him to dismiss the issue with a wave of the hand and then gently guide us back to our more prolific and productive conversations about being the child of Holocaust survivors or the upcoming NFL draft.

Instead, he surprised me with this response: “Everyone Googles everyone these days. Why would this be any different?”

He Googles me, he really Googles me.

I actually challenged my therapist about this, and she either 1) has a really good poker face or 2) hadn’t thought to look. But maybe now she’s reading. If so, hi!

Dave also wrote about the end of privacy being the end of shame, which is, I think, a central theme here. Vis: re-opening my Twitter account, arguing for the (re)presentation of self, or wondering about my friend who ended up in sexual misconduct. I personally feel that privacy is a crutch in life. When I live more transparently, I find myself more free to exhibit my personality in an uninhibited manner. It’s about being comfortable with my flaws.