It’s the heart of the birthday season at our house. Simon last Saturday, Lucas this Saturday, Tristan in a couple of weeks, my mom just before that.
For some curious reason, late winter is also social media-versary season for me. As you might have heard in the media, Facebook turns 10 today with 1.23 billion users – and how much do I love that it’s the same age as Simon? Truth be told, it’s hard to imagine life before either of them! It was a little over three years later that I “discovered” Facebook and signed up for my own account just a few days after Tristan’s fifth birthday: March 16, 2007. I must have had some time on my hands that day to collect shiny online baubles and logins, because I also signed on to Twitter for the first time that very same day! Until today, I had completely forgotten that I’d signed up for both on the same day.
And a few years before that, on February 2, 2005 (nine years ago this past Sunday!) freshly back to work after my maternity leave with Simon, I caprciously launched into the cyber-ether my very first blog post. Nine YEARS of blogging, peeps!
That’s 2,405 blog posts, 27K blog comments approved, 21K tweets, and let’s not even talk about the hours lost to Facebook, shall we? (Oh, and since we’re taking inventory: more than 4,600 photos on Flickr, too!)
A short list of things I did not have nine years ago when I created this blog:
- three kids
- a career in social media
- a digital SLR
- a house in Manotick
- a photography business
- a smartphone
- a four-day work week
- two cars
- grey hair
Funny how little of the above I could have prognosticated back in February of 2005, isn’t it? While I’ve always had a penchant for waxing nostalgic, I’ve never been very good at looking forward and setting long-term goals. Looking at this, I don’t feel so bad about that – so many of the things that make my life a wonderful adventure were not even on my radar screen nine years ago.
I still like this paragraph from my very first blog post:
So what would I blog about? Well, my kids of course. What else is there of significance in my universe? So does the world really need another soccer-mom wanna-be sending dispatches from suburbia, trying to strike a voice somewhere between Erma Bombeck, Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby, but in the 21st century, not Jewish, not male and not black? And potentially not really funny?
Well, why the hell not?
It perfectly captures the capricious serendipity that has been the lietmotif of my life for the last decade. I think it’s equal parts alarming and delightful that so much of my life hinges on that single question: why the hell not, indeed! I can hardly wait to see what the next decade has in store!
When did you succumb to Facebook? Or have you managed to resist the siren song all this time? And what is your social network of choice?
Edited to add: Clearly I’m not the only one looking back and feeling nostalgic. Facebook has a wonderful little gift for you to celebrate its 10th birthday – a little highlight reel of what Facebook thinks are your best moments in your FB history. See yours here: facebook.com/lookback. I absolutely adore mine and only wish FB had some sort of mechanism to share yours with everyone or embed it outside of Facebook. Oh well, you’ll have to trust me that mine was lovely. How was yours? 😉
Re-edited to add: Yay Facebook! Lookback videos are now shareable! (If it doesn’t display, you can also see it on Facebook!)
Congratulations on nine years, Dani! Here’s to many more ahead.
I started my first blog almost six years ago, as winter of 2008 was winding down (that’s it about the cold: you just want to stay in and write). I didn’t get into other forms of social media until later–Twitter in 2010 and Facebook in 2011–and I did so under duress, under the strong arms of friends and family.
And I’ve loved every minute. I’m grateful for the connections it’s given me, including meeting you.
Cheers!
Congratulations!! to you and many many more, ox, you are a very special individual and very SPECIAL to Ron and I love you ox
Happy blogiversary! My 10-year is coming up quick. I’ll have to go back and take a look at my first post!
I remember you sharing your blog link with me 9 years ago at work. If you’ve been blogging for 9, I’ve been reading and laughing and sharing many of your links for just as long. I’ve been hooked since your first ‘what the hell’ post! So glad you’ve stuck with it and taken all your readers along for the ride. Happy blogoversary! .