5 Ways Social Media Saved My Life - Sunday Stilwell of Extreme Parenthood
I began my journey as a blogger in the winter of 2008. I had a number of friends who had blogs to keep their extended family in the loop with current events and photos of their family and they urged me to start blogging as a way of recording my roller coaster ride as a single mom of two boys with autism. I had always enjoyed journaling when I was a teenager and so I figured I'd give it a go and see if my family and personal friends might get a kick out of some of my adventures.
Little did I know that blogging was only the doorway into what would soon become salvation for this lonely stay-at-home mom.
Here are 5 ways social media saved my life, and in the process, my sanity!
1) You're not alone.
No matter what kind of day you are having there is always someone else on Twitter, Facebook, or a blog who not only feels your pain but shares it.
Maybe you are a brand new mother with a screaming infant with colic, perhaps you just received a diagnosis of breast cancer, or your husband just announced he wants a divorce. You can bet your bottom dollar someone else in the Blogosphere or Twitterverse is out there not only wanting to talk about it but is willing to do so at 3 a.m.!
2) Conferences, social networking events, and brand-sponsored soirees is the new Girls Night Out!
You buy your tickets, catch a plane or a train, and before you know it you're back in the hay days of letting loose with the gals, eating good food, drinking fine wine, and laughing it up while 6 of you cram into one hotel room for a weekend. You haven't had this much fun since your bachelorette party 10 years and 3 kids ago!
And most of these gals you just met for the first time that morning!
Blogging and Twitter has opened up a whole new society of friendships that closely rival the traditional "I've known her all my life" variety. Some of the best friends I have made in the past two years I have only seen once or twice in real life but I talk to them everyday on Twitter, Facebook, and my blog. They are my tribe and with them I feel whole.
3) Its not a hobby...its a business!
Every time I hear someone from outside the blogging community call what we do a "hobby" I want to rap them upside the head and hand them this post by Queen of Spain:
Now what was that you were saying about our little "hobby"?!
4) I have a voice and I'm not afraid to use it!
All of us have a passion. Perhaps yours is promoting green living or supporting a woman's right to breastfeed in public. Maybe you have a child like mine who has autism and you'll strive to make their voice heard all the way to the steps of the U.S. Capital if needed.
Social media has given each of us the power to support our causes with more than just a written check and to do so from the comfort of our own homes or the local Starbucks.
It has empowered our opinions, our voices, and taught us that when they are combined they move fast and carry great weight!
5) Lord knows some days I just need a good laugh.
If I'm having a craptastic day complete with a sick kid, a grumpy husband, and menstrual cramps that remind me of childbirth I am NOT in the mood to put on pants, wash my hair, and make myself presentable for human company. What I am in the mood for is a good laugh. STAT!
At moments like this I know my salvation is only a twitter feed or a facebook picture away and my friends are all too happy to go to any means necessary to give me the laugh I so richly deserve.
What about you? What has social media done to make your life easier to handle? Has it made is more difficult in any ways?
