Friday, April 25, 2008

Life: These kids and their wacky technology

My husband doesn't get the appeal of a blog or blogging. Nada. Zilch. Especially a personal journal-type blog such as I'm writing.

He only reads it when I specifically send him a link and say "Read this". I don't call on my "Read this" strategy all that often, because it loses its impact when over-used. Every once in a while, though, the fact that he doesn't read the blog becomes ... awkward?

For example, here's a conversation (as I remember it) that happened a few months ago:
Dave was telling a friend (Hi Chris!) a story about how we were learning to snowboard.

"I thought Haley's version was funnier," the friend said.

"Haley's version?"

"The one she posted to her blog."

Dave turned to me. "You wrote about this on your blog?"

A moment of silence passed during which I felt like I've been caught leading a secret life (using my name on the very public forum of the Internet).

"Of course."
In order to prevent future conversations like that, a few days ago, I decided to subscribe my husband to the email feed for this blog (offered through Feedblitz, see the lower right column of this page).

Now while my husband doesn't seem to get the appeal of blogging, I personally don't get the appeal of instant messaging. The conversations are too slow for me. Because my husband uses instant messaging all the time, though, I try to remember to sign in while I'm at work so we can exchange an occasional few lines of conversation.

Apparently, his subscription to my blog finally kicked in today. Here is a snippet of an instant-messaging conversation we had:
Husband: Wordless Wednesday?
Husband: WTF?
Me: It's a blog thing. Some bloggers post a photo on Wednesday and call it Wordless Wednesday. :P
Husband: :P
Husband: This is all too wierd
A moment later he'd moved down to the next post titled A Steamy Romance Novel.
Husband: DH's Rogue?
Husband: DH?
Me: dear heart, dear husband
Husband: Ew
Husband: STOP
Husband: Seriously
Me: LOL
Husband: this is just TOO WIERD
Husband: Will you be text messaging soon?
Yes, we're both typical Americans of our generation who have never caught on to the international fascination with text messaging.
Me: DH has been around for a LONG time
Husband: And you never told me you read the novel
Husband: You just posted it to your blog?
Me: I did it right after you told me it was clickable
Several minutes passed while my husband doesn't say anything. I started to worry. (This is one reason I'm not a fan of instant messaging, BTW.) I picked up the phone and called him. No answer.
Husband: Are you calling me?
Me: yes
Husband: On a conf call. What's up?
Me: sorry
Husband: That's OK. What did you need?
Me: Just trying to get a read on you -- you seem upset about the blog
Husband: Not upset
Husband: I just do not in any way understand it
Husband: :)
Me: LOL
Me: OK
So that's where we left it. I'll continue to try to draw him into this "secret life" that is my blog. He'll continue to remind me to log into instant messaging every day. And we'll both stay in continued agreement that we have very limited uses for text messaging.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4/25/2008

    LOL

    that is very true for Nic & I too!
    He tried getting into it but he's a man of minimal words... but I see sometimes he logs on and reads my blog just to "keep up with the times". Silly boyz.

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Although I'm not really in the same boat anymore, having stopped the 'journal' style of blog, my wife and I have found ourselves in similar situations to the one you describe.

    She doesn't understand blogging, not sure if I'd really want her to be honest. This is like my little getaway.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4/28/2008

    LOL I get that. My hubby is completely baffled by blogging. I've got my IM client running whenever I'm at work, and most of the time he forgets to log on.

    But I guess it's only fair... I completely don't understand his fascination with WoW.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lisa, Tam and Kelly -- It's nice to see that I'm in good company!

    ReplyDelete

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