subscribe
A Lover of the Undercover
I am a big fan of online communities. My experiences have been almost entirely positive (barring the woman who faked being a twin mommy with pictures she stole off someone’s blog– yick). There is a real kumbaya that happens when you connect with someone and then an even greater sense of satisfaction when you can engage in a “conversation” with them. But like IRL friendships these relationships have their own etiquette and subsequent baggage. For instance, it is best to respond to your friends’ posts even when you are just piling on the compliments so your “friends” feel loved.
But here is my confession … I also love to visit anonymous sites where people are brutally honest because they don’t have screen names to rat themselves out. My favorite has to be www.youbemom.com . This site is the redheaded stepchild of www.urbanbaby.com who foolishly changed their message board interface and took away all of the fun. On youbemom.com (or YBM) women (mostly from the tri-state area) are completely uninhibited because they are anonymous. You can just unleash your two cents and not suffer any repercussions. How liberating. It is like being able to tell your friend that she should stop dressing like she is 20 without her getting mad.
Naturally some postings are very mom oriented (how to wean off ebf, nap drama, cold remedies) but many of the posts are social commentary in real time. During last night’s Sarah Paulin speech I was lurking and this post appeared “Anyone else think that little Trig Palin should have been in nice, quiet, dark room getting some sleep as opposed to being passed around like that?” It was if someone had read my mind and said exactly what I wouldn’t have said out loud. The responses are mostly helpful and almost always witty. YBM gets some heat because there can be some pretty snarky responses to otherwise innocent posts but these occasional flames are just the price to play to have a safe venue to say what you really think.
share the love:
