Dear Readers:
One of Dr. Ink’s favorite stories comes from Greek mythology. (Since seeing the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” Doc has begun to think of himself as Greek.) In the story, Narcissus rejects the love of Echo. Instead, he spends his time admiring the beauty of his own reflection. The gods turned him into a flower, which still bears his name.
An online form of narcissism has taken shape. According to Doc’s friend and colleague, the modest Chip Scanlan, it is called “Ego Surfing.”
Here’s how it works. You simply call up a search engine, such as Google.com, punch in your own name and see what happens. On the first go-round, the results are predictable. The name Dr. Ink produced more than 400,000 matches. But when the narcissistic Doc made the search more specific (“Poynter’s Dr. Ink”), he came up with a puny 108 matches, as opposed to 1,590 for Inky’s doppelganger Roy Peter Clark.
Unlike Libido Surfing, which provides instant gratification, Ego Surfing takes time and patience. Many links are repetitive, misleading, out-of-context, lapsed, or inaccurate. But there are also great surprises, as when Clark learned that his “30 writing tips” had been translated into Italian, or that a group of Latin teachers were sharing one of his essays.
Dr. Ink invites his readers to do some Ego Surfing. Type your own name into a search engine. Catch a few waves until the surf goes down or you wipe out. Report back to Dr. Ink on what you’ve found. Specifically:
· How accurately is your work portrayed?
· Is it presented in the right contexts?
· Did anyone rip you off?
· What were the most surprising links?
· Did you have any fun?
