Category Archive

social media

When previous homeowners find your home reno blog

You know we love us some house blogs, and you KNOW we love hearing about your before and afters. But what happens if your “after” was someone’s beloved “before” and they happen to stumble upon your posts about your frustrated home struggles? These are indeed 21st century problems, but they are also very real experiences. One Homie gives us a reminder about how small the interwebs can be.

This “No Media Mondays” idea sounds tempting to me

Puddle jumping, painting, reading, fairy hunting in the woods… what are you missing out on by being glued to a screen (tv and computer) most days? One Offbeat Mama decided to find out what life has in store BEYOND Facebook, email, Pinterest, and television by implementing “No Media Mondays.”

Why I started “No Media Mondays” in my house

I’m shamefully addicted to my computer. I’d like to say it is mostly to stay in touch with the friends and family that I recently moved 1000 miles away from, but it started long before that. A few weeks ago I watched as my 20-month-old daughter “cooked” at her pretend kitchen while I was making dinner. She then proceeded to bring her baby doll to the rocking chair and “read” her a book, the exact same way that I do. She gave the baby a kiss, tucked her in, and said, “Night night!” I thought to myself, “My god, this child pays attention to everything I do.”

Some people think putting your kid on Facebook might be bad for your job prospects

When I started reading this piece about why you shouldn’t put photos of yourself with your kid all over your Facebook profile I was all “Yeah yeah yeahhhh, another post about why this is bad for kids.” BUT THEN I actually paid attention to what I was reading and realized that the case being made is that splashing personal details of your life with your child(ren) online can impact YOU negatively in the career field.

The topic of this article is totally NOT one that I support, but I do feel like the possibility of being discriminated against for sharing your kid’s lives on social networking websites is worth discussing. You can’t change a practice like this if you don’t know about it!

They really say just about anything: readers share their favorite kid quotes

Kids are notorious for saying all kinds of random shit — the phrase “kids say the darndest things” doesn’t exist for no reason. My own son had us literally LOLing recently, so I shared what he said on the Offbeat Mama Facebook page.

My door is open: why I’m pretty public online about my home

Rockethaus is pretty public. I run two blogs dealing specifically with homes, I tweet pretty much all the time, and I am also a normal Young Professional living in America. A LOT of my life happens online, publicly, where other people have access to it, even people I don't know terribly well. We talk about parties, problems, events, and projects, and we do a lot of it completely in the open. My mom would argue that it's dangerous for people to know where I live and what my habits are, but I prefer to think it's part of community building.

Social media and social faux pas

The use of social media in modern-day event planning and celebrating is a relatively unexplored territory, short of making events and inviting people to them, marking them private or public, and waiting for the RSVPs to come in. Most of my friends keep their more formal, more intimate, or more serious gatherings off Facebook entirely; it seems to be the province of housewarmings, open birthday parties, drunken meet-ups, and house parties. Wedding invitations, funerals, bar and bat mitzvot, anniversary parties — all of these seem to be too formal for an event on Facebook, at least in my social group.

However, the post-party roundup seems to go un-addressed in a lot of modern etiquette discussions. Putting an album of pictures up on Facebook where friends who weren’t invited to the party can see them? Deciding whether to post a status thanking your biggest helpers and supporters so they can get some community love? Handling how to address the people who were invited but didn’t RSVP, or the people who weren’t invited who feel like they should have been? None of these things are handled in advice columns…

3 tips for sharing baby news online without annoying your childless friends

Like many twentysomething parents-to-be, my friends can be put into one of two categories: those who are absolutely thrilled to hear I’m pregnant and want to know every last detail, and those who are quite frankly tired of seeing nothing but babies and wedding photos on Facebook. And despite being a recently-married mama-to-be, I understand where they’re coming from.