Pixel Posybytes of life

Last week M, his mom and I were discussing the effect parent blogging will have on children as they age. There are a handful of parents that are able to fully support their families through detailing the raising of their brood. And plenty others that just blog for their own enjoyment and the support they receive from the parent blogging community. And there are even those that are purposely trying to compose something their babies will be able to look through when they are older.

So what do you think? Is this type of record just a very detailed and public baby book, or could it provide emotional fodder for middle school teasing? Just think of being picked on because someone found your mom’s blog postings about raising a bed wetter. Or how about finding a clip of yourself on YouTube that your parents uploaded because it was the first time you went poop in the potty, and someone mass emailed that link to half the school. These private moments and problems are being made public with the help of the Internet. Then again wouldn’t it be fascinating to have insight on what your life was like those first few years where most of us have no memories? Or does the public factor squash that?

The conversation steered towards teens and their lack of self filter on what should and shouldn’t be posted in their social networking profiles. The same can be said of some adults. Cyber bullying, sending naked picture texts and commenting job related frustrations out there for everyone, including employers to read. I had a cyber stalker when I was in college that became a little scary; but I’m sure he was nothing like what I’d find today. (He made a site taking my face from a photo I had online, and used paint, yes the program paint, to draw some crude sexy poses for me.)

M found another article about parent bloggers on CNN today. This one is on if it is ethical for parent bloggers to post about products they receive from companies wanting free publicity in turn, without letting their readers know about the arrangement.

M’s mommy blogger post: http://www.carterpants.com/?p=621

CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/10/mommy.bloggers.ethics/index.html

I was reading through old posts at the Glamour.com blogs, Smitten. Writer Shallon Lester posted about her ultra dorky vision board (pictured), but I don’t think it’s dorky at all… What a lovely visual way to remind yourself of your life ambitions. If you don’t have dreams what other reason do you have to get out of bed in the morning?

So I think I might whip one up for myself, only having a graphic design background I’ll use Illustrator and Photoshop and make it an actual print. Hanging up magazine clippings is a tad too high school for my grown up decorating tastes. However I did steal a lot of my imagery from Google images.

I’m ordering a 10×10 print and sticking this in my bathroom to look at as I get ready each morning and to remind myself exactly what I want from this life. Which is mostly just happiness.