It’s Day #21 of the September Blog Challenge. Today’s topic:
Discuss ways that blogging or social media has changed you.
I started blogging when I was pregnant with our first child back in 1999 so I could easily share information with friends and family. The habit (however frequent) has become such a part of me that it’s hard to remember how I communicated with people before that. I suppose group emails (ugh) and handwritten/typed letters, right? Nowadays I have a tough time finding a postage stamp in my house. My blog has also become my preferred method of journaling, although I am far less personal on my blog than I would be when writing only for myself.
Believe it or not, I think about what I’m writing and, in most cases, what other people will think of it. I try to be careful with the amount of detail I share on my blog. One way my blog has changed my life is that not a week goes by without someone pausing in their conversation to tell me DO NOT PUT THIS ON YOUR BLOG.
Whatevs. 
Besides my blog, “social media,” to me, is Facebook, Pinterest, texting, and email. I don’t do much on Twitter these days, and while I have Instagram and Tumblr accounts, I rarely post on them.
Facebook has changed my relationships TONS. On the positive side, I’m able to keep in touch with people I care about and reconnect with old friends. I love that Facebook has made me better friends with some people than ever. Having just celebrated a birthday, I have to say that Facebook birthdays are the BEST. What sucks? I now know about friends’ political and religious views that make me super-sad… I am surprised at how many people I know don’t know how to spell… and how many are totes cray-cray.
Pinterest, on the other hand, makes me LOVE people! I get on there and think MAN, MY FRIENDS HAVE GREAT TASTE!
Texting has nearly eliminated my need to call people on the phone. I love it. It’s mostly a good communication tool.
Email has been around a lot longer than the rest, and I have always found it one of my favorite ways to communicate. But spam sucks. So do people whose email addresses change every other day.
But to answer the question of today’s blog challenge topic, how has social media changed me? … It got me through the scariest fight of my life. I truly believe that my outlook during cancer treatment would have not been nearly so positive and hopeful without the support of friends and acquaintances via social media. That’s the kind of thing that make it worth putting up with all the sucky stuff in social media.
If you’re a blogger and want to do our blog challenge with us, let me know and I’ll send you our list! Otherwise, tune in here (and on Sherilee’s happy little blog) every day in September.
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Thanks! –Jen