<p>I wouldn’t do it because my kids appreciate my keeping boundaries between their life and my life clear. If your kids don’t mind, it’s fine. However, I also enjoy this separation even though I adore them.</p>
<p>garland, you’re going to die of shock–but I agree with you. I was shocked to hear some details of roomies when I was home. Once again–parents are WAAAAAY too involved.</p>
<p>Note to colleges: the IM lottery scheme only raises the involvement of boomer parents. Nto a good look.</p>
<p>I google myself and my sons. I have managed to stay off the radar! Partly becuase my brush with fame ended in 1996. Won’t last because I have to stop being an idiotand put up a website.</p>
<p>Cheers, I hope you’re being facetious, because I think we agree a good part of the time!</p>
<p>IrishMomof2, if you can possibly manage this: try NOT telling your D you did this.
It can’t win you points with her, and can only have the chance of upsetting her. It’s time to be discreet. She’s a young adult woman now. </p>
<p>I actually think the Overinvolved moment begins when you tell her you did this thing that is gray-area overinvolved.</p>
<p>I just overinvolved myself with you by saying this, since you didn’t ask for advice!</p>
<p>When my own D googled up her own name at age 15, she found that a same-name (unusual spelling) woman l0 years older than she writes books with very nasty titles. She wants to be a writer herself. She’d going to publish only under her first name, if she has the opportunity. (It’s different, like “cher”).
Because the spelling is so unusual, some people WOULD assume they’re the same person. Besdies, my D’s writing is better 
Actually, my D writes fiction and the other woman is a sociologist who writes for the general public and is widely read.</p>
<p>If only I COULD google D’s roommate. Seems she is an international. No phone number, no Facebook, no way to reach her (internationals haven’t been given their school email info yet, for some reason). D was looking forward to the usual college fun of planning the room … who brings what, etc. Guess we’ll be bringing all?</p>
<p>I’m an international student, and I have four pages to myself on Google. I also think I’m the only one with my name in the world. Maybe you should just try? I googled my roommate, who’s an American, and she has one hit (very common name, I put her school in, too)</p>
<p>Actually, D did try … it’s a common name, apparently … all scientists, so it seems.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s an issue. In fact, I’ve used it frequently when selecting team members or when I’m curious about a person’s accomplishments. It’s often hard to identify the correct person if there are many people with the same name, but local papers often publish students’ accomplishments which can help you narrow down the correct person. For students, I find that it’s rare to find negative information such as criminal records or other trouble they may have gotten in – it simply does not appear on the Internet.</p>
<p>As someone mentioned earlier, college students read Facebook and blogs all the time to get an idea of what a person is like.</p>
<p>It’s “stalkerish” only in the most non-threatening way. If your motives are good, and it won’t cause problems in your relationships in the future, go for it.</p>
<p>I’ve googled people before. I googled my college roommate before I met her when I couldn’t find a facebook for her, and I found out that she’s a top athlete. I googled another friend of mine in college (who I had a bit of a crush on) and found a couple newspaper articles about a very dark event in her past. There are some things that are better off learned in person. By searching online, you can’t easily differentiate between harmless information and things that are more personal than you’d like to know at that point in time. Yes, it’s online for anybody to see, but I did regret finding out personal information in such a sterile and dishonest way. You can also get false information, as people have mentioned, or you can form a false impression (positive or negative) from what you read.</p>
<p>I think that there is a difference between a child looking on facebook and an adult using google, by the way. This is not any sort of attack on parents who do or have done this, but it does sound as if it’s stepping over a boundary. My parents only know about my roommate through what I have told them.</p>
<p>For a name that isn’t super common but is still hard to find, I suggest the first and last name in quotes along with the abbreviation of their state, name of their country, or name of their town/area.</p>
<p>My S did Google his freshman roommate and found out that he played the bass guitar in a band. He was pleased to find this out since S plays guitar. I often Google people out of curiosity, old flames…;)</p>
<p>Well, as I said earlier, i don’t object to googling itself but rather the particular situation–googling your kid’s roommate. I still think info about the roommate should come from the kid and only from the kid. But as I guessed, i’m in the minority on that one.</p>
<p>LOL momofsons,
Doesn’t everyone? (google old flames, that is)</p>
<p>LOL. I felt so good googling one old flame, he’s gotten fat and stodgy looking. Just like the corporate lawyer he now is. Any lingering regrets were quite put to rest. My first boyfriend, who was never serious, is much better looking now than he was then. Quite surprising. Then there was the cutie patootie that played Scott Joplin to me. He’s still adorable. Oh well! </p>
<p>As to the original question. I plead the fifth!</p>
<p>My H googles himself all the time, to see if he’s been quoted or had his work referenced…this is known as “ego surfing”…</p>
<p>We can plead the fifth on the roommate googling? Great! Me too!</p>
<p>Sorry to be snooping on the parent’s forum, but…good grief. After reading this thread, I Googled myself for the first time, and apparently my first grade teacher submitted three poems I wrote for class to an online Young Writer’s website using my full name. Embarrassing! I certainly hope my future roomie’s mother reads the post dates!</p>
<p>garland, I’m with you, I’ve never googled DS’s roommates or friends.</p>
<p>I have many celebrity customers at the pet store – but as I am not a celebrity groupie I often don’t have a clue who they are. I know I am <em>supposed</em> to know them, they act as if I am supposed to know them, but I don’t. BUT – I google the ones that pay with their credit card (or with a check) and then I <em>do</em> know who they are. My favorite one of those celebrities is from Sesame Street!</p>
<p>LOL, deceptacon!</p>
<p>If you google my son he appears to be a physicist with quite a few publications.</p>