Around the Web We Go...

The lurgy is abating round here, thank goodness, and I am back online.
Although, with the help of my delightful smartphone, it's as if I never left.
While I languished on the couch I was able to keep abreast of online conversations and controversy, and even find a few internet gems.

First up and forefront in my mind is this strangely contradictory story about posting kids pics to Facebook. My blog friend Lisa at All in a Daze alerted us to this story and it kinda got me thinking. Not that I agree with the author at all. No. She is extreme and paranoid, refusing to post even a single picture of her daughter on her facebook account in case face recognition should one day come back to haunt her, yet (paradoxically) actually chose her daughter's name via Google - based on whether there was a domain and gmail account available. AND she illustrated the post with a picture of a small child in the bath (obviously not her own child, but I wonder whose?)
Go figure.
It's an interesting discussion don't you think?
How much is too much? How much caution verges into paranoia? How much photo sharing invades our kids' privacy? And as bloggers, where is the line between over-sharing and keeping it real?

For myself, I am trying to walk the path of common sense.
I gave my kids aliases on my blog, right from the start. I tell stories and keep it real, but don't do it in a way that will embarrass my kids. I don't share the parts of their stories that aren't mine to tell.
On FaceBook, I only accept friends on my personal page that I actually know, or have a meaningful connection to, I set my privacy to "friends only", and I never turn on geolocation on Instagram or anywhere else. I figure that's enough? Without being paranoid?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on it all... How much is too much? And how much is enough? Where do you draw the line?
(Meanwhile another blog friend, Monique from Mogslee & Tiger wrote this response)

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On a similar vein, in another part of the blogosphere, some fine writing managed to stir up controversy without even trying to....
A friend shared the link on FB, to a post by "Mrs Hall", an open letter post to teenage girls called "FYI: If you're a Teenage Girl..." about putting sexualised images of themselves online and how as a family they would filter those girls out. I loved the post... but then came the comments. Mrs Hall had posted some photos of her sons at the beach... and oh the backlash. The accusations of double standards was vicious and overwhelming!

Mrs Hall, whose usual readership is "19 faithful readers" responded to the criticism with humility and grace, handling this backlash with much aplomb. She has now removed the offending photos of her sons in their board shorts...
This post again got me thinking. I admire Mrs Hall's stand and the way their family sets high standards of accountability for their kids around social media... but it also made me cringe at the nastiness and eagerness to judge and jump on a bandwagon by the hundreds of people who commented.
This is one aspect of social media which I abhor. The freedom some people seem to have to pour vitriol on others, and the way once this gains momentum, a tidalwave of abuse is heaped upon an unsuspecting writer. Kind of makes me glad none of my posts have ever gone viral - I doubt I would be able to handle such an outpouring of judgement and criticism in the way Mrs Hall did.

How about you? Have you seen this occurring in social media, where people jump on a negative bandwagon?

Now, away from all that controversy, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Meg, who has recently begun a blog to document her family's overseas adventures as they live and travel around the world. Her blog is "Awake and Dreaming" and already I love it. Meg has only been blogging for a couple of week, but she is a natural blogger; she is drawing me into her adventures with wit and humour. At the moment they are in the Phillippines and Meg's latest post is a heart wrenching one. I'd like to share that post with you today...



So there you go. A round up of what's caught my attention on the interwebs lately, good, bad and ugly.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on it all....!