Facts: I run two podcasts, I have a daughter and I'm not famous.
I started #NoCapes a little over a year ago, and it's been a blast to run. I get to talk to some of the people that I look up to most and interact with the community. The Algorythmics I launched last night with my good friend Chris Pitt.
There are no words to explain how much I love doing both of these things.
As with just about anything in my life, my kids know what I'm doing. I make a point to share the things I do with them so they can see what Mommy's doing and why she works as hard as she does. They watch me code, they understand (basically) what a red/green cycle is. They've seen my talks, and they know about my podcasts.
Somehow my daughter, who is my eldest and has a firm handle on how to google, takes all of this to mean that I'm famous. In addition to googling her mother, she's also a big fan of YouTube. Her absolute favorite videos to watch are "unboxing videos". Apparently, people run "shows" where they do nothing more than unbox toys on camera and talk about them. This blows my mind.
Again, as she seems to think every person on the internet is famous, she sees these shows as being "famous". Recently, she's talked about starting her own YouTube show constantly. I didn't really pay much attention to it until she broke down sobbing that she wanted to be FAMOUS, MOM. FAMOUS! YOU'RE FAMOUS, THIS ISN'T FAIR. WAH WAH BLAH BLAH WAAAH.
I was dumbfounded.
"That's not famous, honey. That's just the internet".
Once upon a time, when I was a kid, people were famous for doing something. It wasn't always a great something, but it was something. It sure as hell wasn't unboxing toys on the internet.
She cried, and she begged and I watched and I listened. More than anything I had one of those moments you have as a parent where you're struck forcibly in the face by the reality of the world that we live in. The world I'm raising my kids in. This is a world where people get famous for doing literally nothing. Not the new fangled definition of literally, but the actual definition. Nothing.
So, my little pumpkin and I had a talk. I told her that she could have a show and I would help her record it, but no daughter of mine is going to get fake famous for doing nothing. I sent her off to go think of things she could talk about on her new show. I gave the stipulation that whatever the topic was, it either had to help someone else, or enrich herself. Toys do not count unless she invents them. Pranks (which was her first idea) also do not count.
She went off to think, came back to me later and together we brainstormed to come up with an idea for a show. We found one she was happy with. I think it'll be fun, and I think she'll learn a lot from it.
Of course, this lead to the conversation about how the internet is a swirling swarming cesspool of asshats and that nothing worth reading was ever said in the comments.
I don't know if this is the right choice. When it comes to momming, I rarely do. There's a bigger thought behind all of it that's been nagging at me for the past two days, though.
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, the list goes on. These are new things for us. Sometimes they're entertaining, sometimes they're enriching, but we all got them when we were adults. My kids are going to grow up with these things.
The magic of technology puts an entire world of information at our fingertips. It makes it quick, and easy. But for every knowledge dripping resource on the internet, there's 1-2 time sucking mind numbing pits waiting to drain away your brain cells. For adults they'll kill your productivity. For kids, though, they shape their world view.
I don't think there's any solution for this. The world isn't going to get less inane and useless. If anything, there will probably be more and more channels popping up with no noticable purpose beyond wasting time. For me, that little tantrum/breakdown and the resultant conversation made me hyper aware of what I'm doing. What I spend my time on, what I put out into the world and of course, what I let my kids watch and the ideas they're forming about those things.
PS: No, that doesn't mean I'm going to be any less useless on twitter. Sorry.