As social beings, one of the first things that we do when we are seen by other people is create an initial physical impression. How we present ourselves gives people a glimpse into how we view ourselves and what we are wanting to say about ourselves.
As a group, one way the Society of Mary is Virutally perceived is to do a Google search on “Society of Mary” or “Marist Fathers and Brothers”. It almost goes without saying , the higher in the Google ranks we get, the supposedly better the impression.
As Google users know, each link that comes up as the result of a Google search takes searchers to one site at a time that in turn presents a front page, an initial virtual impression.
Recently, an Internet-based script, called “personas” was promoted claiming that it is a way for the viewer “to reflect on the current and future world where digital histories are as important, if not more important, than oral histories.”
Originating from the MIT, “personas” “mines” available data for phrases on the Net, does a deeper search, showing how the Internet, sees any phrase typed into it.
Whether we choose to give that statement any significance or not is over to each of us, however using this script to search for “Society of Mary”, “personas” got the Society of Mary a little confused with the Marianists.
None-the-less, and whether we like it or not, unless the searching tools improve that’s how the Internet sees the Society of Mary, and this will be our digital history for those who use search for “Society of Mary”.
Using personas, a search on “Marist Fathers” however, produced the following image.
More about personas.