Twitter-fied
Posted on January 12th, 2009 – 11:46 AMBy Kay Krhin
My worst fear is that someday the kids will draw a picture of their family and their depiction of me will be the back of my head facing a glowing computer screen. So - I attempt to check my e-mail, surf and write blog posts during the ever dwindling naptime, after bedtime stories, or with my morning coffee @ work. But the pull of the keyboard can be strong….”Oh, I’ll just check my e-mail while they play trains…” Multi-tasking mama. But not “present in the moment” mama.
I’m working on it and I know I’m not alone. I recently read Your Voices blogger, Andrew Eklund struggling with the same issue with his older kids. “It’s very difficult and obviously inconsistent to tell the kids you’ve limited their screen time when Mom and Dad are juggling laptops, Blackberry’s, and iPhones all at the same time. It’s like telling your kids not to eat too many sweets as you’re jamming a pint of Ben and Jerry’s down your pie-hole.” The old “do as I say, not as I do” conundrum. You can read the rest of his post here.
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On a related note. I think I’ve disparaged Twitter on this very page. I believe I even accused a friend of twitterbating. “Do people really want to know your random thoughts every 3 minutes?” Apparently the answer is a resounding “yes!” The site now has over 6 million registered users.
OK - now here’s the irony. Well…Cribsheet is now on Twitter, along with the rest of the Star Tribune blogs. I know as of right now that May and I won’t be giving you a play by play of our days with things like “Diaper report. Orange. Too many clementine cuties?” or “I just stepped on Lightning McQueen with my bare foot. Spoiler and all. Ow!” We are both feeling a little too blogged down to commit to twittering and add it to our reportoire. BUT if you are one who follows Twitter’s tweets and want to know when we’ve put up a new Cribsheet post. You can sign up and follow us here:
(Again. I realize - the irony is not lost. Here I am talking about spending more time in the moment with your kids but HEY sign up to follow us online or your mobile device! )
How about you Cribsheeters? How do you keep a balance between your electronic life and the real life in front of you?
5 Responses to "Twitter-fied"
I love twitter, and have two accounts, one for me and one for violet. But my two cents is that twitter’s only interesting to me if there’s a live person on the other end. with the sites I work for, I have live accounts and autoaccounts, and the live get so many more followers because real humans writing is interesting, even if they are just linking to their new posts. To auto twitters, I say — if I like you, you’re already on my rss reader, I don’t need your tweets, too.
(And not trying to be rude, just my thoughts on how to best us and leverage social media)
I don’t twitter - yet, but I have enough trouble keeping facebook time to a reasonable amount. When you work sans co-workers it’s easy to justify a spin on your friends’ pages.
But I don’t want my children to have me always disparaging television, but see my head stuck in a laptop or texting a friend.
So I’ve been try to actually TURN MY COMPUTER OFF between 4-8pm and give myself over to my family. It’s not easy.
But I realize that I’m in the golden years where my kids are capable of doing lots on their own, but still love me to pieces. I gotta grab that while I can.
I basically skip it until after the kids are in bed. I do this 50% for the ‘be present’ reason and 50% because, like a lot of you I’d bet, I spend most of my day on the computer and it’s not that hard to avoid for a while after I come home.
Plus, I don’t have many friends so don’t get much e-mail anyway. Oh, and also because I haven’t mastered the art of enjoying my time on the computer while 2 little girls climb my head asking me what I’m doing.
BUT, my husband is a different story and I’ve encouraged him to post a comment since it’s time Alec had some company in the cribsheet dad department.
I feel for my hub, though. It’s hard to follow 4 sports, 12 elections (and any recounts) and any and all predictions for upcoming weather without a lot of screen time.
I thought Twitter was pretty much the dumbest thing ever…until I started doing it. Now I can’t stop. 
Working from home, I think it’s especially fun because it’s sort of like having some bustle around “the office.” I have two accounts, one that’s attached to my business which I use for updating about worky things, networking with local people, etc., although I try not to make it too much about advertising. My private account is just for friends and used more for personal bits.
oh there you go. that’s totally why I do it, too — I work at home and there’s no office interaction. Now I get it.
