January 23 12

I often think about how being a blogger has sort of skewed the way I think, act, behave.

You see, I’m the only one of my friends who has one. Not, you know, the friends I have stashed all over the world; the friends I have met since I started blogging in 2004. No, I’m talking about the friends I have who don’t write for a living, who don’t sit at computers all day, who don’t know what Pinterest is, who don’t know what I mean when I respond to a text message with “Blergh.” They are orthodontists and dentists and oral pathologists (Yes. My friends tend to skew towards the teeth, which is funny, because I rarely go to the dentist. SHH! Don’t tell!) teachers and speech therapists and engineers and scientists and lawyers and doctors and all sorts of things I know nothing about (Ask me what my husband does for a living. Go on…ask!).

(Answer: *Shrugs* Something with computers?)

They are a great many wonderful things, but they are not like me. They are not involved in heavy relationships with social media. They don’t even use the phrase SOCIAL MEDIA. They don’t consider facebook, twitter, pinterest, klout, wordpress, instagram as anything much more than, well, things that people like Ali use on the internet. They don’t question whether or not people are still using Google+. They don’t stress about things like hosts and CSS and web design and OMG MY SITE IS DOWN CALL THE WEBSITE POLICE WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!! They don’t find out all of their news from Twitter. They don’t know, or care, about RSS feeds or page views or analytics or SEO. They don’t care what an em-dash is. They don’t photograph food, clothing, or possible photography props to ask the internet which wooden bench they should buy. They don’t know who Dooce is. They don’t think in hashtags. They don’t think about how many times a day it’s appropriate to link to a single post (I say two, unless you are SharonDV. She can tweet hers as many times as she wants to.) They have never gotten into a Twitter fight with the author of Sarah’s Key. They don’t write about being emotionally connected to fictional characters. 

They don’t—when their 9-year-old son comes into their bedroom at night wearing every single pair of pajamas he owns (Look Mama! I’m Chism from The Biggest Loser!)—immediately write about it on Twitter and Facebook and immediately take a picture.

They don’t think, “I wonder how many people on Twitter will make a Friends reference?”

They don’t think, “I better not Instagram the picture right away. This material is GOLD, and everyone knows that using all the good stuff on the weekend is a waste!”

They don’t think, “I wonder which medium will have the better response, Twitter or Facebook?” (Answer: For me, it’s always Facebook. Always.)

No. They don’t. They probably snicker about it, and send their son off to bed.

Not I, of course.

THIS is what I do.

So, I’m kind of the black sheep of my friends and family.

But I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go make my children recreate something cute that they did so I can tweet it, instagram it, and probably put it up on Facebook. 

Who am I kidding, really? Definitely put it on Facebook.

 

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  1. Brilliant! I was just thinking about this same thing this weekend. So many of my “out of my computer” friends just don’t get it. Off to share it. 🙂

    Comment by Jana A (@jana0926) on January 23, 2012
  2. Yip, also addict. None of my friends get it either. That’s fine. Makes for more interesting chats, not about social media. Can you be a social media/blogging nerd? Maybe being a blogger by def. makes you a nerd?

    Comment by Chris on January 23, 2012
  3. Yeah…It’s totally doesn’t affect my relationships at all—it’s just interesting 😉

    Comment by ali on January 23, 2012
  4. I just got back from the Alt Design Summit and felt like “these are my people”! People who live online AND who love good design/creativity. It was my first blogging conference and what a blast it was…

    Hah – your post is spot on! I too am one of the few of my friends who really get living like this. I STILL meet people who are confused/suspicious that you can meet and make friends with people online and it.is.okay.

    #notthatmuchofanerdatall #keepingupwithchange <—the hashtag life!

    Comment by Sandra on January 23, 2012
  5. The woman who made her kids wait to eat last night so she could take pictures of their Chinese New Year’s celebrations is nodding her head in a knowing way. I will probably tweet that post out four times.

    Comment by Sharon on January 23, 2012
  6. The other day I was babbling about something that I found on Pinterest and after a minute noticed that my three friends (two teachers and an event planner) were looking a little confused. What? It wasn’t that they were puzzled by the concept of fingerless gloves, no, they were just wondering what exactly a “pinterest” was. I’m not exactly at the head of the pack on these things (I’m not even on Twitter!), so I’m always surprised when everyone doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

    Comment by Jessica on January 23, 2012
  7. I introduced four of my friends to the beauty of pinterest last night! It was awesome!

    Comment by ali on January 23, 2012
  8. AHa! That’s incredibly hilarious! I’m just picturing your face when you first saw him. Priceless.

    Comment by Mel on January 23, 2012
  9. Yeah. I basically died right then and there.

    Comment by ali on January 23, 2012
  10. We are part of an interesting tribe. 🙂

    I actually put good images and post links on Twitter and on Facebook separately and individually – those are two different audiences, in my opinion.

    Comment by Avitable on January 23, 2012
  11. They are two TOTALLY different audiences. And honestly, I don’t get much response to stuff on twitter. Twitter is more conversation for me. Facebook is more response to stuff I post, if that makes sense. It’s always interesting to see, though, how the same stuff plays out.

    Comment by ali on January 23, 2012
  12. It is weird. I’ll post something on Twitter that will get 10-15 retweets, and then something else on Facebook that will get 30-40 likes, but one post never gets both!!

    Comment by Avitable on January 23, 2012
  13. You are very fancy. I celebrate ONE RT 😉

    Comment by ali on January 23, 2012
  14. Ha! Not everything, just the really, really good stuff. 🙂

    Comment by Avitable on January 23, 2012
  15. Ha. THIS. So many offline friends who have zero idea what I actually do, or why, or how. And don’t even get me started on my family – my sister isn’t even on Facebook, and my dad will email very, very rarely and only has Facebook through his wife’s occasional use. Thank goodness for her, she keeps him online for me, at least a little. lol!
    And my husband can’t even stand Facebook, much less explore Twitter or any other site I use. ; )

    Comment by Jen on January 23, 2012
  16. I definitely automatically thought, “I’m Chandler! Could I be wearing any more clothes?!”

    That is pure awesome, as is this post, because it is so TRUE.

    Comment by Mrs. Wilson on January 23, 2012
  17. Love this post. I am pretty much the same. My friends (or most anyway) have stopped looking at me like I have 2 heads, but my family definitely hasn’t… I also tend to get more action on Facebook, ironically mostly from twitter friends – who, yes, I do consider real friends now 😉

    And the first thing I thought when I saw the picture: “that’s not the opposite” 🙂

    Comment by Stéphanie on January 23, 2012
  18. […] read this post from Ali this morning and I laughed out loud. She wrote about being a blogger with non-blogger friends and […]

    Pingback by Hey, Mrs. Wilson! » moments on January 23, 2012
  19. Some of my friends are getting it more. I think the ones more obsessed with FB are now “getting” it. Plus Pinterest and Instagram becoming more main stream helps. I just then like to be all “oh, welcome to 2007, people.”

    I never get a response on Facebook. I must be doing it wrong.

    Comment by Kristabella on January 23, 2012
  20. Yes yes yes!!

    My friends don’t do those things either. Look at all they are missing out on.

    (and facebook is always better for me, too)

    And that picture is the greatest! (definitely not something you want to waste on a weekend! hehe)

    Comment by Tracie on January 23, 2012
  21. Everyone should care about the em-dash—everyone. 🙂

    Comment by Tamara on January 23, 2012
  22. Haha love it

    Comment by Tammi Marie on January 23, 2012
  23. Heh. I made my local friends start blogs. And a recent group of friends that I just fell in with this year is actually rather tech savvy. Only one of my new friends has a blog but the rest all are heavy Facebooking, tweeting, Instagramming, Pinning fools. That’s why I love them. 🙂

    Comment by FireMom on January 23, 2012
  24. LMAO! I thought it was just me. Cute guy trip-up in the store: Twitter thought for later. Dog drama: blog post, Twitter link, perhaps some Flickr. New thrift find: Picnik, Etsy, Twitter, Pinterest.
    OUr lives in 140 characters & 1000 x 750 pixels. 🙂
    dahlila xo

    Comment by Dahlila on January 23, 2012
  25. Facebook, definitely.

    Twitter? not-so-much.

    Comment by gorillabuns on January 24, 2012
  26. I have a few friends who blog, but most are just FB-ers. And Instagrammers. Get me in the office, though, and it’s an entirely different world. (One coworker refers to the Internet as “The ‘Net.” Yes, really.)

    Comment by Angella on January 24, 2012
  27. I showed a friend the DYAC site one day. Yeah…she’s still talking about it, 5 months later.

    We are so engrossed in it that we don’t even realize others have no clue. Truly most people I know have no clue. My mom still calls it “the Facebook”. I do love it though. Most days at least.

    I’m with you…even though I prefer Twitter, if I need or want someone to respond, I tend to go with Facebook.

    Comment by Issa on January 24, 2012
  28. I LOVE this post. LOVE. I don’t have any friends that do this thing I do either (but I don’t get paid, I just like it!!) But I also don’t have any blogging friends, whooo boy do I wish I did! Just someone who is on the same learning curve as I am.

    Comment by Amy on January 25, 2012
  29. I feel like I’ve just attended the most entertaining blogging seminar – thank you!!!!

    Comment by Louise on January 27, 2012
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