Connected-ish

Last night I slept away from my baby for the first time in 5 months. I was on the sofa bed downstairs, and the MOG had Tristan duty. I still woke up at about the same intervals, but I went right back to sleep. It was awesome. What was more disconcerting than sleeping alone was sleeping without my phone.

I left it upstairs along with my computer, so I would actually sleep. Now, if you don't live in my kinda existence, that's probably crazy talk. But, I, along with a good deal of my generation, am rarely disconnected from the internet.

Really, I'm not that opposed to it. I mean, technology and progress are good things. So anytime someone starts howling about isolation and false senses of connectedness, I just think about cars. Aren't we glad for cars? I mean, sure, pollution and accidents and such, but ultimately, isn't it nice to be enclosed in climate controlled fiberglass and metal and rocket along paved roads to your destination? There are upsides to social networks, that's what I'm saying. (There are also almost limitless downsides, but that is not the topic here, keep up.)

And maybe it's because I've blogged a couple times a week for nearly 6 years now, but I feel much more connected to the outside world and other humans than I did in the early parenting days, when I was 15 miles outside town with no TV or internet or close friends to hang out with.

I love it that I can stay home with my kids and be engaged in a conversation with friends from around the country. I love seeing your lives, your kids, your days. I love it that people can reach me, easily and silently, and we can "talk" while a baby sleeps next to me. I don't feel that those friendships aren't real. Is it a little spooky to arrive in a new city and someone I've never officially met knows what I usually eat for breakfast? Well, yeah. But it's a springboard for real relationship, a virtual ice-breaker.

Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and blogging. It's the communication of the future, and it only has to be as shallow as you make it. It's true that you can control how you are perceived online, holding the camera to smooth the double chin and not writing about how your kid said they hate you or whatever. But that's true of in-life relationships too, honestly. I have lots of "real" friends who don't know many, many facets of my strange and varied personality.

I often think about those prairie wives, looking out the door of their soddies at miles of tall grass, and how they just went nuts. I get that. And that is why I appreciate and enjoy live-blogging my life on the internets.