There are many joys to working with new media, but perhaps none more so than all of the \u201cStats\u201d and other metrics provided by even the most basic of new media platforms.\u00a0 I love the fact that everything is trackable because it not only gives me an idea of how people are responding to my content, but also how new readers are stumbling upon my site.<\/p>\n
Over the past couple of months the \u201csearch engine terms\u201d stats have becoming one of my favorite pieces of information.\u00a0 The terms that people type into their search engines are interesting, sad, mind-boggling and humorous and, yet, they all lead to my content (I\u2019m not sure what this says about me).<\/p>\n
While many of the searches are worth noting, my favorite yet occurred last week when someone found me by searching, \u201cI don\u2019t believe for one minute the apostle Paul was into Catholicism, how can I prove this?\u201d<\/p>\n
My immediate thoughts were (in order):<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Someone should teach that person how to use Google.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if the modifier \u201cfor one minute\u201d is a boolean operator, but my suspicion is that such phrases do little to enhance your search results; and<\/p>\n
2) \u00a0 \u00a0 What ever happened to intellectual curiosity?<\/p>\n
It has been said, \u201cwhat we look for determines what we miss.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, when we operate with bias, we find only evidence to confirm our bias, often missing evidence to the contrary that sits right in front of our eyes.<\/p>\n
In our search-engine based culture, we\u2019ve gotten to the point where we no longer seek information and perspectives as much as we seek validation of our already-formed opinions.\u00a0 The search I mentioned above doesn\u2019t paint a picture of someone who wants to understand the Apostle Paul\u2019s perspective on the early Church and the development of Catholicism.\u00a0 It was asked by someone who wants bullets for their theological gun, so they can take down whoever dares offer a perspective contrary to their own.<\/p>\n
I typed the same search into Google this morning to see if I could figure out to which post the person had been directed.\u00a0 Five results later, there was my content, a recent post I wrote entitled \u201cStumbling over the Body of Christ, My Journey.\u201d\u00a0 The post was about my past struggles embracing the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist because of my own intellectual biases.<\/p>\n
Ironic?\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n
Coincidental? Perhaps<\/p>\n
Or perhaps the Sprit of God can reach even far enough into Google search results to lead people to the truth.\u00a0 That\u2019s my guess.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"