Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Mommy Blogger Phenomenon

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I have a theory. I think it's a pretty good theory. But we'll see, because I'd just love to hear your take on the matter.

The Facebook, Blog, and Twitter phenomenon. What's your take? See, I did email and MSN chat with a few select people "back in the day" - you know the early 2000's - when Myspace was something vaguely out there in the universe. And then I thought I was just the bee's knees for having a Myspace page. I maintained it, though I did find it annoying to navigate, and even more annoying to change my profile and such.

I started a blog after I followed Tarah from her Myspace page to her blog. I'd seen Xanga before, and even posted a few odd times on my Xanga around the time I got married. But I grew tired of it and had a hard time remembering my sign in information. I was amazed by this blogging phenomenon! That was in October 2007, and within a few days of reading Tarah's, I started my own.

We were already into the hard months of Joshua's pregnancy - having found out in August 07 that Joshua had an encephalocele. At first I blogged about him, about how I was feeling, then about his birth [7 Jan 2008, his life, and eventually his Home Day [15 March 2008]. After he was gone I blogged about what life looked like now, about Oceana, and soon about our new little one that would arrive in April 2009.

Then I heard about Facebook. I said I already had a Myspace, so there was no reason to get another thing I had to maintain. But curiosity got the better of me and I realized - around the time we lost Joshua - that half the people I knew had a Facebook. So, I got Facebook page!

Then at some point I got a Twitter account, and while that one doesn't get updated as often as the rest, I do keep it "warm", but perhaps not running red hot :).

It began innocently enough - I wanted to tell people about our family, I wanted to connect with old friends.

And now I realize that a lot of my motivation is simply this:

*I want to connect with human beings over the age of 3.*

I spend my days talking about Nemo, Larry Boy, baby dolls, and legos. I take shoes off, put shoes on, wash stinky toes, cut crooked toenails, and deny little girls when they ask me [at this very moment] "Smehw my steekny TOES!" and then give in to shut her up [Ahem].

I need some human interaction. Facebook, blogging, and Twitter offer me that. I'm a social butterfly and I need people. And if I've got to type my conversations, rather than speak them, that so be it. It does my mental health some good. :)

So that being said....

Why do you blog? Twitter? Facebook? I'm curious to see what other people do it for. :)

17 comments:

  1. Facebook: bc I wanted to stay in touch from college friends, HS friends and friends along the way. TWitter? just bc its fun. Myspace? friends not on facebook.

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  2. A little of the same reason. But I tend to be an introvert, so while people in real life are not as appealing {grin} I love communicating with people in the written word. My main reason for having a blog, though, is to preserve and cherish these fleeting moments of being a young mommy with young children. I know all too soon they will be gone. And I cannot trust myself to remember them all. So I document the moments, and my thoughts and feeling that wrap around the moments. I want to remember how blessed I am - right now. In. this. moment.

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  3. I laughed when I read this post, because well...it's so the truth for me. Facebook for me is a way for me to "talk" to people when *I* have the time, which changes by the minute. The blogging thing, I do the same as Tiffany. I want to remember my life and my babies and all the little things that happen in our day to day lives.

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  4. Oh, Yeah, I'm totally with you - I blog for adult conversation. :) And also to show off how smart & cute my little one is - seriously, I love all the encouraging comments I get & I love being able to have a conversation where no one holds their gooey finger out to me and says, "Wat dat?" :)

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  5. I didn't have email or even a computer til 1997 whe my oldest was 6 or 7 months old. My MIL bought it for us b/c she was going through chemo hours away & we wanted to be able to keep in touch w/ her on a daily basis. It was a home-built computer by some random guy that she paid with a 6 pack of beer. Yes, seriously. I was a full time SAHM and when I opened that door to the world of the internet, it was like you said --- I was able to connect with human beings who could speak in complete sentences. Wow! My hubby was (then) working nights & sleeping days and I was falling headfirst into an eating disorder to deal with my depression & loneliness. And then along came the internet.....

    All these years later, I love blogging simply b/c I love to write. I'd LOVE the chance to stay at home again & work on writing a book that I've been creating in my head for years, but since that's not really feasible financially, I blog as a way to dump my brain onto paper (err...screen) at the end of just about every day.

    I did have a Myspace a few years ago, but eventually got sick of the viruses we were getting from the site. I switched to FB b/c I had to give up MS, but in the end, I love it soooooo much more! I don't Twitter...I don't really get the point of it when I have email, FB and a blog. I figure if anyone wants to keep up with me, they have plenty of ways to do so. But I did open a twitter account at one time...just haven't ever done anything with it.

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  6. I view it as my lifeline. Really. Sometimes blogging and facebook are the only adult interaction I get all.day.long. Especially with Daniel being deployed.

    I crave socializing and adult conversation (even if it is a discussion about chidlren). I need to know that there are a whole bunch of us moms in the same boat, slugging it out in the same river.

    And besides, it's fun! And maybe a little bit of it is because I am of the curious sort.

    -Andrea

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  7. Oh My Gosh. I started doing all of the above because heck... thats what everybody else was doing! lol. As for now... Im addicted to facebook and reading my few old faithful blogs...

    as for posting on my own blog-

    I dont get it ... how some of these people have the time to do it is beyond me... Id like to keep up on mine more but sleep usually seems like a better choice at the time...I should start though because the main reason I started my own is so I could use it to get printed into books once my children are older... a way to remember when they were little because it goes by too fast. Im failing miserably at documenting that though... its been months since I've posted.oops!

    As for Twitter. I do nothing on there than wonder who these people are that are following me... They seem sketchy to me since I have a whole 2 tweets in the past ... oh. year. So I may be deleting my twitter account soon.

    As for my reasoning as to why Im completely addicted to facebook/blog reading...Very much the same as you. Im isolated... I've moved away from friends and family and I dont get out much.lol.I use facebook to talk with friends since I absolutely cannot stand the phone...Also as a networking place for my photography...
    Blogs- I love reading when someone else is going through the same struggles that I am-It helps to know that there are other people out there that despise cleaning as much as I or whos children pee on the floor or throw crazy fits in the store. It makes me feel a little less crazy :P

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  8. Naomi looks a lot like you in that picture! :-)

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  9. I think I do it for the same reasons. It's just fun to interact with other adults. Plus it's fun to get to talk to people about things that you might not have known about. I main blog and update FB. I have a Twitter account, but frankly it confuses me and I have no idea how to find other people since your username can be whatever you want it to be. I never did the My Space thing though.

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  10. same reasons, although I only have a facebook & blog, but I love the intereaction as well.

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  11. Have a blog - maintain it often :-)
    Have a Facebook page - use it to keep up on a handful of people, not really into it, cause I think it would be too addicting for the limited computer time I have :-)
    Have a Twitter account - don't use it much except to get Tweets from a specific person

    LOVE the comment about talking to people over 3 - that is totally true !

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  12. The myspace facebook crazed passed me by, I just never got them, but blogging I've fallen for. HARD. It started as a way to sort out my own thoughts and feelings, about motherhood, about myself, about dealing with the strange life that being in the military creates. And then I realized that I was connecting with people, that I was finding common ground and connecting with strangers who could relate. And who were potty trained.

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  13. I TOTALLY am there. I have a 2 year old and a *almost* 8 month old and I love facebook and to some extent blogging. I read a ton of blogs, mostly mommy blogs just so I can know I'm not the only one feeling the way I feel! LOL I love facebook because I get more interaction than "baba, GG (veggietales), OH-TAY, Ahh-dun, MMM and NO"...

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  14. Honestly, I joined babyfit when I found out I was pregnant with my last baby in october of "06" I did not read blogs or have a myspace or facebook or anything at all. I followed another babyfit mom and her son to her blog and then I read about Joshua and I followed you to your blog and the rest as they say is history. I read a few blogs but the only ones I read everytime they are updated is yours and Becca (the other babyfit mom) and the wierdest thing is that I don't know either of you but your children captivated my heart and I think about your family all the time. So I read blogs because of Josh and Ben!

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  15. For the same reasons as you really. Well, Facebook and Twitter are to stay connected with adults. Adult interaction that I don't get because I am home with kids 5 and under. I blog mostly to remember how it was when I was home with the kids, their firsts, pictures, cute things they say, etc. I often wonder how stay at home moms did it without the Internet back in the day. I would have gone nuts!

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  16. My love of blogging came from clicking a link in an email, which sent me to a certain eBay listing, which led to me finding "Because I Said So".

    I don't spend as much time blogging as I used to, but I do like to check in and read what's going on in others' lives from time to time. Like many of you, I long for adult conversation, and when you're stuck at home with toddlers a blog or facebook account can feel like a lifesaver! I don't Tweet, and I have a MySpace but I don't use it.

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