Editor’s Note: March 2010
March 1st, 2010 by Jane Schneider
Wow. I’ve been struck lately by how very different the world of our children is compared to when we were coming up. Of course, the digital age has been redefining many aspects of our lives for the past two decades. But this notion was driven home to me anew thanks to Twitter.
I’ve been tweeting more regularly lately and I’ve discovered it’s a fun and an interesting way of crossing paths with a diverse range of people, folks I might not otherwise find on the web. Take for example, local blogger Merry Mary, a girl I’ve learned more about since I began receiving her tweets a month or so ago.
She’s from Memphis, she’s a graduate of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, and she’s an aspiring photographer, writer, and blogger. She’s got several blogs, in fact and I admire her diligence. She comments almost daily on current events and activities in her life as she travels, a 23-year-old woman moving into the world.
I’ve become aware of several things since our brief, albeit, fairly one-sided encounter: A. She’s an avid Tweeter. B. Her followers come from around the world, in part because of a travel blog she hosts, among others. C. Her virtual life is rich and nuanced and generous. Through it, she has developed an interesting network of people who, like her, share an entrepreneurial passion for life.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it was through her weight-loss blog that she met a fellow blogger, a handsome young man from Auckland, New Zealand, who shares her passion. Their relationship began innocently enough, with occasional posts on each other’s pages. From there, it slowly evolved into a flirty electronic correspondence, which led to texting, then phone calls, and finally, an invitation to come for a visit — to New Zealand. (Since this is a place I’ve always wanted to visit, I believe it was her Tweet, “I’m here in New Zealand!” that lured me into her sphere to begin with.)
She went for a month, to explore the country as well as her budding romance. I have learned all this from reading her blogs. (And as a mother, I must admit to feeling a bit like I’ve been snooping through my kid’s diary, though I suspect Mary would be delighted. You can too, at amerrylife.com.)
I find this of interest personally because as a journalist, the media world is in a dramatic state of flux. As old school journalism continues to fight for its existence, online media is morphing at the speed of light, giving voice to a new generation of writers. They will help redefine journalism and the direction it takes in this digital age.
As an employer, I’m equally intrigued, since there’s so much I can learn about this young woman by visiting her virtual world: the awards she’s won, the weight-loss campaign she’s mounted, her writing style, her love of life, she’s even posted a helpful tutorial on how to start your own blog. What is my take away? I see someone who is passionate about writing, has lots of initiative, and at 23, is crafting a vision for herself. She is literally penning her future.
When I put on my parent hat, I find myself thinking about the transparency of Gen Y’s lives. It amazes me how willing they are to blur the line between their private and public personas. They put so much more about themselves and their personal struggles out there. As parents, we teach our kids to be discerning, to weigh the information they share about themselves with others, especially with strangers. Yet much of the success of Internet blogging has come from people’s ability to a attract and develop communities that support and even encourage such self-revelation. I find that shift, from observer to memoir, a fascinating one. That it should lead to love is all the sweeter.
Of course, it’s easy when your children are 5 or 10, to think this world is still a ways off. And if they’re still in elementary school, it is — for now. But this is the reality our children will live in. The connectivity of our world shrinks it beyond measure. In my day, we might have found romance with this year’s exchange student or perhaps with someone we met while traveling.
But nowadays, the world is simply a keystroke away. How that will shape us as parents, as a society, remains to be seen. But for people like Mary, the future is now. Wow.