David Black posted on November 17, 2008 14:07
One thing which I have been reading about recently is how search queries are really an open door to the mind of the searcher in showing what is important to him/her. I became intrigued by this topic while reading Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters, by Bill Tancer. Tancer works for Hitwise, a company which tracks website hits and trends for commercial customers. In this role, Tancer has the charge of making sense of data and trends which result via search. What really got me thinking was his contention that our search queries are really an insight into the mind of the user at any given time, and how the collective search queries and trends show our concerns and vanities as a people.
If our search requests are truly an insight into our minds, what would my search requests say about me? What would yours say about you? What would the queries of our students say about them? Do they reflect an obsession with a temporal world which will pass away, or would they show a focus on what is most important, our faith in Jesus Christ? What if we were to track our search queries over the course of a month? Three months? A year? Would God be glorified? Would the simple knowledge that our queries were being tracked change our behavior? Should it?
The first 21st century skill identified by Shepherd of the Hills Christian School this year is that we want our students to have the ability to use technology in God-pleasing ways for ministry and personal productivity, and in keeping with good digital citizenship practices. Perhaps one of the ways we can instill this idea in our students is by talking about search queries and what they are saying about us, helping us to remember that our search is never truly anonymous. Even if our requests are not tracked online, we know that they cannot be hidden from our Lord.
May God bless our use of the tools which He has granted us so that our searches may better prepare us to serve Him in all ways.