Being true to myself :: I’m a blogger
Posted by Alli on November 5, 2009
So, I decided to try and think about the things I know about myself in an effort to answer “Who am I?” question.
And one of the areas of my life- one of the true things about me- is my online life. The blogging, the twittering, the facebooking, and the DIGITAL MOM part of my life… they are a big part of who I am. And, I am totally doing myself a disservice by not blogging about them.
I think I took a wrong turn somewhere when I told myself I shouldn’t blog about blogging. I didn’t think I was doing my readers any favors by reading about online life stuff. But in not blogging about anything else in the blogosphere, I was hampering my ability to build community.
I’ve mentioned twitter here and there, but I never promote twitter parties or reference the friends I’ve made there. I don’t talk about forums I frequent and the relationships I’ve built there. IRL (aka in real life) when I talk about being online, about the digital mom part of my life, I kind of get embarrassed and try to change the subject. I try to defend hours I spend at the laptop.
Actually, let me tell you a story.
After the Today Show segment aired, I never came back to this space to explain anything people saw on TV. I stewed over many things that irritated me, I quit reading Dooce because of what her commenters said about me, and I was kind of glad we went on vacation right away and had almost no internet access. It allowed me to just skip over it and go back to blogging stories and sharing pictures.
But it wasn’t me. I was denying a part of who I am. If I’m going to say I’m a digital mom on national TV, shouldn’t I be comfortable writing about it as well?
So, as I move forward with figuring out who I am, I embrace the fact that I am a blogger, I have a life online, and I’ll probably be writing about it a bit more in the future.
Stacey @ Tree, Root, and Twig said,
First of all, I’m really sorry I’m so out of the loop – did not realize you had appeared on the Today Show! (when? when?) Second of all, I feel like I can identify. There are SO many things about being a “digital mom” that I have opinions on or have experience in, and I never share them on my blog for fear of alienating many of my readers (who, honestly, are primarily the kind of people who just ‘have a blog’ vs the level of involvement I have). But it *is* part of my every day, and it feels disingenous to not share. Thanks for this post – it’s been something I’ve been thinking about a lot myself, and I appreciate your perspective.
.-= Stacey @ Tree, Root, and Twig´s last blog ..2-Year Old? Or Circus Act? =-.
Alli said,
Stacey, don’t feel badly for not knowing. Like I said, I don’t really talk about it. I didn’t think it would be cool for me to go up to people and say, “Hi! I’m Alli. You might know me from places like twitter, the blogosphere, and that digital mom segment on the Today Show!” Actually, that’s not that bad, right? LOL!
Glad I could make you think. I’m still thinking about it this morning!
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