BLOGGING & FACEBOOK

From time to time someone will ask me why I blog, tell me all the reasons they don't use Facebook, or initiate some other similar conversation about those two things. The reasons to blog or be on Facebook, or not to, are countless and all valid, but here's why I do both of them.

Facebook - I was hesitant to join and wasn't very impressed once I did. Now, more than six years later, I'm still on Facebook and really enjoy it. It's a very convenient way to keep in touch with people who don't live locally, has reconnected me with people from my childhood and college years, makes rallying the troops for various needs super easy, and gives my extroverted self a chance to shoot the breeze with people in a season of life where I'm home a lot.

I never send out friend requests (actually, I think I've sent two or three ... but that's basically never), always accept them from people I know, regularly unfriend people I don't actually interact with, hide and block as needed, get unfriended and blocked (and hidden, I'm assuming) as other people need, and work hard to make sure I use FB as a way to learn more about other people on a daily basis. Of course, I also talk about what's good and bad in my own life, post pictures of the other Ws, link to my personal blog, ask for help or input when I need it, and so on. And I'm not above FB stalking, or "sleuthing", as I prefer to call it. Sounds classier, don't you think?

Blogging - My decision to blog was completely spontaneous, a pattern that I've recently started to realize lends itself to long-term changes and/or positive action for me. I've never had a goal of increasing my readership or focusing on some particular subject matter. Do people read it? Yes, but only when I link up on Facebook. And I'm fine with that. Do I address topics that go beyond chit chat? Sometimes, but there's no particular subject that I talk about on a consistent basis. And I like it that way.

I simply enjoy having a place to share what our family is up to, sort through my thoughts on various things, and so on. For me, blogging is a combination of giving friends and family a place to conveniently check in on our family and keeping a journal of sorts. One of the things I've come to really love is scrolling through all the posts filled with quotes I like and my monthly book lists (hmmm ... maybe I need to separate that link into books from the monthly list and books that aren't). I do that once or twice a week and it keeps all the quotes (which I also include in some book posts) fresh in my mind all the time. And, of course, I love looking at old pictures of the little W. And being able to look up details of things that happened a while ago when my memory fails or someone is asking about it.

There may come a day when I don't find blogging to be worth my time or Facebook no longer serves the purpose I use it for, a time when the pros no longer outweigh the cons, but for many years they've both been something I find useful and enjoyable,