Mommy Blog Lines: Tal(k)ing Care

C: Personally I’ve always been very private online, I’m not super engaged with online social media profiles. I’ve never really been into posting about relationships.   B: I agree, I am also pretty private online, and have always assumed that the people I am actually close to will know what is happening with regards to my relationships or work or school.   We have both used our privacy to make sure only approved people can access our online profiles.   B: For me the issue of privacy is less related to unwanted views from people I don’t know or maybe don’t like, it is more about how my information is being exploited or how I am being survielled by online collections companies.   C: Different apps have had issues with privacy and content being extrapolated without permission, does this affect what communication apps you use? I know that whatsapp is encrypted front to back.   B: Yes! I do use whatsapp, mostly to connect with friends living abroa...

Listening to you both is really interesting because you tell such different stories about your relationship with social media and screens. Claire speaks warmly of social media being one of her longest and most reliable relationships. In terms of regulating it, you remember it being something your parents attempted and about spending time reminiscing and reflecting back on the archives of those early years online. Beth, comma your relationship with social media has turned a little frostier from the sounds of things. We're in awe of someone being able to break this connection, and wonder if you are comfortable sharing some of your thinking around this decision and process  -- we think there are some stories around your decision. Here's a couple of questions both of you may want to take on: Are there certain areas, or parts of your lives, you don't put on line or decide not to talk about? Are there certain people you would rather not allow access to your online world...

Hi! My name is Beth, and t he internet came into my household when I was 12. The sound of the dial up slowly trying to connect with its series of beeps and bops is one I remember fondly. I don’t really remember using the internet for anything other than msn chat, clunky pre-cell phone messaging my friends and I used mostly because we thought it was funny to spend our computer classes messaging each other behind the teachers back. Until I was in my late teens I didn’t used computers for much of anything beyond email. At that point I began to use it to make travel plans and research things, typical surfing the net stuff, facebook etc.. I got my first laptop five years ago and began to use the internet in the way that I imagine most people do, for entertainment, for banking (I always did telephone prior to having my own computer), for shopping, and for so many other useless, time consuming things. I think when you are using a public computer, or someone elses, it limits how you might expl...

My name is Claire Renic and I’m a second year WGS/rhetoric student at the University of Winnipeg, with plans to continue my higher education in women’s studies, with a focus on sexology. Being born in the nineties means I am a child of the internet; my generation has grown up connected, and this sense of connection shows no sign of slowing down. My relationship with social media and screen is one of the longest term relationships I have to date. For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in screen, which resulted in both parents implementing restrictions on the amount of “screen time” both my sister and I took in daily. In all honesty, I can probably count on one hand how many days those rules were abided by… but the battle over screen went on for years. When my sister and I first got cell phones, they had to be turned off and put downstairs for the night.... again, you can imagine how long that lasted.  Some of the earliest memories I have of sc...

J: What is the best app of your new smart phone --what do you use most and rely on? B: Two are tied: 1) first is my podcast app because it allows me to search and access pretty much any podcast (current fave is (2 again): 2 dope queens and Politically Reactive. AND 2) I also love whatsapp because it allows me to communicate with people internationally and is a great free messaging system, .It's outside of the cell phone provider and it keeps you in touch with people all over the world as long as you have wifi  (hi Helga!) B: You recently got a new  phone? Why and what are the noticeable differences? J: What a good question. I hope not just for image--wanting not to be the only one pulling out my perfect but old iPhone. BUT I really miss that little and perfect iPhone--the first mobile I really liked. This phone is my enemy . It comes with so much technology--graphics/sound--a computer world of possibilities, and I feel bad falling into some and never going near others...