Evidence of the site's popularity is that the author (Heather Armstrong) was featured on the Today show this week. For some reason Ms. Armstrong was subjected to a reporter/ celebrity host dual interview by Kathy Lee Gifford and some reporter I didn't recognize. I'm not fond of this format. The viewer is robbed of a proportional amount of actual information from the guest they presumably tuned in to watch. I know that folks who attended South by Southwest paid a small fortune to hear Ms. Armstrong talk about her road to blogging success, but I suppose the Today show knows their business.
I saw a clip of the interview this morning and the subject of privacy came up. Specifically whether it was a good idea for Ms. Armstrong, and indeed any blogger, to post about their children complete with pictures and intimate details. Actually, that topic was more intimated than clearly stated. Kathy Lee Gifford scrunched up her face and said "I'm not gonna make any judgement at all but there's something that worries me about it. I don't know enough about computers obviously, I just know about my fears about computers." In response Ms. Armstrong brought up the point that all these parents who blog about their kids (the Blogfathers, Sweet Juniper, etc) are reaching out to other increasingly isolated parents to say that the work of parenting is difficult, and that it is ok to be overwhelmed.
I enjoy reading these blogs even though my little sprout hasn't made her appearance quite yet. Long before becoming pregnant I felt that reading parent blogs were a way of preparing myself for the daily reality of constant child care. Plus it's fun to hear intimacies about people you'll never meet. My own comics have an element of that innocent (I hope) voyeurism if you don't actually know the participants. I have even found some of the blogs to be immediately helpful like when Bethany of daveandbethany.com recommended the great customer service of gDiapers or when Dooce told a cautionary tale about how to tell when there is a wild animal in your fireplace .
On the other hand I am not a spooky freak show out to do dirty things with random kid pictures online. Nor am I a lazy graphics editor who will steal cute pictures of kids for random ads without parental consent.
But much like Kathy Lee I am a big fraidy cat about all things online due to my own ignorance and paranoid freakouts. I don't ever post pictures of other folk's kids (without permission) because I don't want to bring down parental wrath. I worry every time I swear online, mostly because I worry that my Mom might see it, and I hardly ever post pictures of myself.
Until now:
Being pregnant feels like a free pass to post pictures of myself, since the point of the picture is not how good I look but how much my circumference has increased since the last time you saw me. And let me tell you buddy, I am ROUND.
Here is something for the "too much information" file. Almost half of my rotund tummy is blanketed in stretch marks. I'm sure they are way beyond the norm. The stretch mark lotion that I apply every night without fail? DOES NOTHING.
In actual fact I don't really care about the red marks. I have never really been a midriff baring person. My last bikini was worn thin by my thirteenth birthday and retired. However, this is the kind of pregnancy intimacy that someone else might like to know. Your fancy skin cream? It may betray you, even if you have no family history of stretch marks and you probably (like me) won't really care.
All of this blog/privacy musing brings me to my actual point. I am going to take many pictures of the kid when she arrives, should I post them here? I am full of conflicting feelings.
2 comments:
Do it. Post them. We went back and forth too. We even considered making everything password protected. In the end, it is so awesome to be able to go back and look at the first year.
And that is an awesome photo, btw. You look great.
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