Required Digital Literacy Class in Internet Rabbit Holes
As part of the ongoing initiative at Fred’s University to make core requirements more relevant to everyday life, our internet research class has been redesigned to respond to student needs.
The traditional required research class used 18th-century bolt tax regulation as a test case.
This year the class will use an example shown to resonate more with students: cyber sleuthing your childhood frenemy.
The class is open to all faculty and staff with former friends they want to sleuth. Sleuth, not stalk. We are Nancy Drew here, not Hannibal Lecter.
Here is a demo of some of the internet research techniques you will learn in this rabbit hole research class.
Google Lens Reverse Image Search
We will start with a Google Lens Reverse Image Search.
Do you have an unflattering picture of your enemy back when you were friends before she betrayed you at summer camp and started hanging out with the popular kids?
Upload your photo and crop out anyone else in the photo–for example, the mean girls who stole your friend away but you were slow to realize were a threat.
With the picture of your former friend burning a hole in your screen, go to Google Images and select the camera icon. You can drag or drop that annoying picture into the search.
Or, if you have an online image of your friend you found on her catty social media with her new BFF, Candi, paste the URL in the box provided.
With a reverse image search, you should be able to find your friend’s untagged photo on the website of the new camp she went to the next summer, where she totally stole your entire look and is even wearing that Lego Spaghetti t-shirt she “borrowed” from you.
Instagram Account Research
Do you suspect that after you were blocked from the Lego Cookbook Instagram account you started with your frenemy, she set up a copycat account, reusing all the content you created together under another name?
Is it possible that the mean message you got on Instagram from the new Lego account is from her?
You used to be able to track someone through their phone number on Instagram, but it’s harder now, especially if your former friend has blocked you in Ig.
Instead, use a social media search engine like Supereasy.com to find the owner of that account with the suspiciously familiar Lego recreations of every classic Julia Child recipe.
You can also see if other enraging social media accounts with Lego versions of every Great British Baking Show winning recipe are hers by using a username lookup tool like Beenverified.com.
The Great British Baking Show Lego was your idea! You had all the beige Lego collected for the Hot Water Crust Pastry!
It can be satisfying to go through all the contacts on that stolen Lego Cuisine Account and deep dive into their social media images of exclusive cookouts and not very nice parties. Your frenemy’s new friends are definitely not cooks from the looks of the boring hot dogs they are eating on the beach.
How far your friend has fallen from the Boeuf Bourguignon you cooked and then recreated in 679 pieces of brown to dark brown Lego.
Reverse Phone Number Lookup
Where else might your false friend have repurposed the excellent Lego foodie pics you took using another name?
Track down those accounts using a reverse number lookup like Spokeo.com to connect her phone number to new Lego accounts.
There you can track her theft of your most precious ideas: Lego ice cream, Lego mojitos, and Lego chewing gum.
Search a Website For A Word
Do you suspect that your former friend has created a Lego Baking Club in college, as you guys always planned to do?
Search the entire Fred’s University website for the term “Lego” using the following universal formula:
Site:Fred’sUniversity.com lego
Note that the Lego Club is pending approval on the Dean’s portal and that the club is falsely described as “welcoming and inclusive.” Not welcoming of you!
Search a Document
Download the Lego Baking Club application and search the PDF for your name using Control F.
Nope, you are not mentioned.
All of the hours you spent designing the logo for the club, the Lego menus you created, the product sponsorship you applied for, the Minecraft Baking tie-ins, the Lego Banquet you planned for the end of the term…not mentioned.
Research on Research
You may suspect by now that going down a Frenemy Rabbit Hole is not good for your mental health. Before you start searching your depression and anxiety symptoms on Facebook and making yourself more crazy, consider some better research options.
Look for legitimate, peer-reviewed scholarly articles on Google Scholar, ScienceOpen or CORE.
Even on the safer side of the web, know that not all seemingly legit research stands up to replication studies. The Replication Crisis Rabbit Hole is perhaps the deepest burrow there is.
Beware any study with a sample size of MY ROOMMATES or a control group of NICE CATS I KNOW. Note that Industry Funded Footnote from Lego in the small type and use your best judgment.
If a Lego-sponsored study shows that a bowl of Lego a day is good for digestion, be skeptical.
Remember to put your search terms in quotation marks and separate them with the boolean operator word “AND.”
For example:
“Fickle Friend Leona” AND “Lego Research Study”
If you want to exclude search items, use the boolean operator word NOT.
For example:
“Lego Research Study” NOT “Nutritional Value”
The Best Revenge
Ultimately the best revenge on a frenemy is to find new friends who are actually nice.
Here are some ideas you can look up on the internet:
Set up your own Lego Taco night and get enough Lego for everyone with a quick search of Used Lego By The Pound on eBay. Everyone can come back for seconds when you buy in bulk.
Make that prototype of an apron entirely constructed of Lego you always dreamed of, and share your idea with like-minded people on Quora or Reddit.
Set up a Kickstarter account to raise money so you can start selling your Lego apron on Etsy and go to a local meetup of Etsy creators in your town.
If, by chance, your old frenemy appears at the Etsy meetup with her own apron idea, be generous with her. Maybe you can collaborate on adding pockets.
Add A Search Alert
But just in case your friend is still a bit sus, add her name to a Google Search Alert so that you get a notification any time there is a mention of your search terms.
Suggested Terms For Automatic Internet Alerts:
Lego Lasagne
Lego Oat Milk Latte
Lego Baking Betrayer
My Fickle Friend Leona
Also Read: A Zillow History of The Northeast