Family Privacy on the Internet: Part 1
August 11, 2008 by Geoff Manning · 1 Comment
This is the first in a series of interviews with internet personalities on the topic of family privacy. The interviewees are all active in online communities as bloggers and podcasters so how do they handle the issue of family privacy as it relates to their internet personas?
Clearly they have chosen to live their lives on the internet, but what about their families? How much information about the family is fair game for public consumption?
Our first interview is with the author of Dad or Bust, a blog designed for new dad’s that are looking for real-world information about fatherhood.
[Dad or Bust] presents what one dad has learned and thinks works or doesn’t work. He’s not a doctor, psychologist, social worker, or even a teacher. But he is open-minded, relatively competent and won’t waste your time - he’ll cut to the good stuff. He tells you which products he actually bought and uses, and will be sure to let you know if they suck. And he’ll let you laugh at his mistakes and all the other junk we deal with as we make this scary transformation. From: About Page.
Here is the result of our email exchange on the topic:
In general, how much and what type of information are you comfortable sharing online about your family?
I really don’t want to put too much identifiable information out there in a public way, and that’s why I blog under a pseudonym. While everything I type is absolute magic that shouldn’t be withheld from the public, I don’t like the idea of strangers knowing my kids names or what they look like. I don’t know whether “Buster” would necessarily appreciate being on full exhibition either, once he has an opinion about it.
That said, among my family and friends, I share nearly everything about myself - through online tools I trust that do go to the proper lengths to assure privacy. What if their networks get hacked? I think there are much better things to worry about.
Do you have any guidelines set for how you approach this (or other personal) subject(s)? Were the guidelines self-imposed, spouse imposed or a mutual agreement for how it should be handled?
This is particularly hard for me because I come from a family of very attractive people. I’ve actually had to enforce the idea of keeping photos private, within my family, either because people didn’t know they had left them open to the public, or because people didn’t really take me seriously. The first time I expressed a preference, they wondered hey, why would the highly attractive mind anyone looking at them?
What are your concerns that lead you to this decision to withhold certain info?
Mostly I think the world is filled with people who just want to find their own joy and otherwise stay out of each others’ way. But I also think there are some very ill and sad people out there - and I know from my real job that there are people that do terrible things. Sickos will copy and paste your kid’s head onto exploitative images of other kids they’ve managed to gather - and they even exchange photos of infants. It’s scary stuff.
Facebook, as an example, allows you to create private groups to share photos with. Do you trust that type of functionality and are you comfortable using those features
I do trust this type of functionality. But I still run checks using search engines now and again.
Are there certain website sites or communities that you are more comfortable with revealing that information?
I actually prefer established brands like Facebook, Flickr (owned by Yahoo) and WordPress or Blogger (owned by Google) to the newest start-up websites when it comes to this stuff. At least I know who I’m dealing with and that the rules and terms won’t suddenly change without recourse. I don’t want to worry about what might happen to promises and pledges if the brand new social network or multimedia content tool I’m using gets acquired - or worse, whether my data will be unwittingly sold along with some server in a bankruptcy auction if the company goes belly up.
Do you feel that parents in general reveal too much information about their children online? If so, why do you think that is?
Absolutely, I do. And I think that often, it’s not so much about a hunger to socialize with like minds as it is about a thirst to be noticed.
I think our culture has put a disproportionate amount of value on the concept of attention. People value fame more than achievement; buzz more than truth; even infamy more than anonymity. Exhibitionism has gone from a guilty pleasure to a requirement in order keep up with the Joneses.
We’ve come to believe that the more eyes that see something, the more successful, important, or even true it is. From Nielsen ratings to number of Diggs, exposure and visibility are assumed to be the best measure of quality. Your picture of your kid isn’t cute anymore unless 100 people say they agree. And so people tell themselves to forget about the sickos and go ahead and publicly post photos and videos and intimate details of their lives.
Even though as a blogger I may seem to be tossing stones within a glass house, I do feel I pull the shades down more than the average tech-savvy parent through blog anonymity and carefully chosen privacy settings for multimedia. Because of the precautions I’ve taken, my readers have no idea that I both played point guard for the 1996 Denver Nuggets nor do they have a way to view photos from the time I placed third in a wet-t-shirt contest for chubby teens.
Well, we do now! Very interesting take on family privacy from over at Dad or Bust. Stay tuned for the next part in the series. To be notified when the next part is published, you can subscribe to Daddy Rockstar by Email or in a news reader.
Photo Credit: Kenneth F Andrade
Daddy Rockstar is Now Listed on AllTop!
August 8, 2008 by Geoff Manning · 1 Comment
It’s now official that Daddy Rockstar kick’s ass. And we have a badge to prove it! We are now listed at dads.alltop.com along with other great Dad Bloggers like Discovering Dad, Dad or Bust and DIY Father. AllTop is an aggregator of all the top stories on the internet categorized by topic.
There are AllTop sites for golf, travel, mixed martial arts, running, social media and much more. Anything that fits your passion, you will find it on AllTop.com.
The internet is full of great resources for the moms of the world but there is a limited amount of quality information out there for dads. We hope we fill that void for you and I encourage you to visit the blogs listed above as well as the rest that dads.alltop.com has to offer.
We also want you to know that you can subscribe to Daddy Rockstar and receive updates by Email or in a news reader. Thanks for your continued support and readership!
Weekly Link Roundup: 8/8/2008
August 8, 2008 by Geoff Manning · Leave a Comment
Here is this weeks link roundup for August 8th, 2008. This weeks Link Roundup contains info about: product recalls, smokers’ spouses, sleeping safely, adoption statistics, boozing and a popcorn hack. Enjoy!
- Several recalls were announced by the CPSC
- Spouses of Smokers at Risk for Stroke
- Sleep Apnea May Be Deadly
- Men Adopt Twice as Often as Women
- Study: Americans Drinking Less Alcohol
- How To De-Kernelize Microwave Popcorn
The First 24 Hours of Parenthood
August 5, 2008 by Geoff Manning · Leave a Comment
The first 24 hours of parenthood is the most incredible experience I have ever been through due to the raw emotions involved. Pure bliss, extreme exhaustion, skepticism and pride to name a few. It is the day you give up your selfish behaviors and you truly grow as a person.
Our first full day of parenthood began when the doctor asked: “Dad, would you like to call the sex of the baby?”. To which I responded with a little hesitation “It’s a girl!”. To be honest, I wasn’t 100% certain (maybe 95%), so I had to double-check!
You see, this was a big thing for us since we had decided at the very beginning to find out the sex of the baby. During the ultrasound, however, baby-to-be was less than cooperative. We were left with a 50/50 chance that it would be a girl/boy…gee thanks doc! Given that situation, we decided we would wait to find out. So, with this in mind I wanted to be sure I called it right.
Pure Bliss
The first few hours were the most surreal moments in my life. My wife and I had been building up to this moment for the past 9 months. I read the books, I went to birthing class, I should know what to expect right? Wrong! Nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare me for the feeling I had the first time I held my daughter. Remember this feeling. In the “difficult times” ahead (like 2am crying fits with no apparent end in site!) it will help you remember what it is all about.
Extreme Exhaustion
After a while, the fact that we hadn’t slept in 24 hours started to kick in. We arrived at the hospital at 10:00 am on Wednesday and our daughter was born at 5:00 am Thursday. We’d pulled all-nighters before but this was different. We were running on fumes. The adrenaline pushed us for the past few hours and we were starting to crash. After we were moved to the postpartum room, which would be our home for the next few days, our daughter was brought to the nursery to be cleaned. Given all that had happened the last few hours I wondered if I would be able to sleep, well I did, and we slept well!
Skepticism
Some time around the middle of the day, I had a feeling that I wasn’t prepared. This, I understand, is as natural as taking your next breath. It’s foolish to think that you have all the answers and could ever be fully prepared at this moment. But with every passing minute, and every breath I took as a new dad, this feeling subsided
Pride
Throughout the entire day I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. I was proud of my wife for all she went through, I was proud of myself for being her support and I was proud of us for what we had created. All the proud moments in my life (awards, accolades, accomplishments) paled in comparison to this new feeling of pride. We had created someone (a child) and something (a family) that we would give up our own lives to protect. That’s the kind of feeling I am talking about.
If I Only Knew
There is a great article over at Dad or Bust that discusses the advice that you would give yourself if you could go back and visit with your “rookie, first-week-of-parenting” self. There is some great advice that I wish I had before the big day, go have a look. If you are a rookie dad or a seasoned veteran, what advice would you give? Feel free to leave your comments on this post or over at Dad or Bust!
Photo Credit: Freakazoid!
Weekly Link Roundup: 8/1/2008
August 1, 2008 by Geoff Manning · Leave a Comment
Here is this weeks links for August 1st, 2008. This weeks Link Roundup contains info about living cheap, baby-proofing, and your child’s weight and health. Enjoy!
