I’ve been neglecting this blog. Not on purpose but between diaper changes, feedings and naps (naps for Little Chicken AND for me) I haven’t made time for personal blogging.
I have however been online. A lot. Mostly on social media sites but also browsing the web and getting myself into trouble with my husband with all my online shopping (it’ll stop now Jon, I promise).
I just wrote a blog post at Cactus Connects – my employer’s blog – on findings from a study about moms at home and social media. It would seem us moms like our social media sites. From April 29 to June 18, 2009, BIGResearch polled 4,206 moms and 22,624 adults 18+ on their web surfing habits. They defined “moms” as women with children at home who are younger than age 18.
Survey results show moms spend a lot more time on social media sites than the average adult:
Women with children at home are more likely to use Facebook (60.3%), MySpace (42.4%) and Twitter (16.5%) than average adults (50.2%, 34.4%, 15.0%, respectively), according to the survey. Additionally, 15.3 percent maintain their own blog.
Well I”m definitely one of those moms. I visit my Facebook and Twitter accounts multiple times throughout the day. I use Facebook to connect with other moms and with non-parent friends too, celebrating and commiserating the ups and downs of parenthood but also having a laugh at life in general.
Twitter helps me stay connected to colleagues and contacts from the professional sphere of my life. Sure I also “play” on Twitter – sending out tweets on funny, silly things – but for the most part I use it to share and gain access to information, articles and opinions related to marketing, social media and high tech news.
The one things moms at home need the most is to feel connected. While being a stay-at-home mom is of course extremely gratifying, it can also make a mom feel a wee bit isolated at times. Sure there are mommy groups you can join that get you and baby out of the house, but it sure is nice to be able to log on to a site any time of day and communicate with the rest of the world.
So that’s where I’ve been of late instead of here. I do want to blog more, and I will make a concerted effort to do so regularly. But it’s nice to be able to visit Facebook and Twitter and just quickly share a thought or a link with the outside world.