Does your blog provide you with social/emotional support?

Over on misbehaving.net (a weblog about women and technology), danah boyd looks at the ways we use technology for social/ emotional support:

From soc.support Usenet groups to LiveJournal to mailing lists and IM/SMS, people are often using technology to reach out for social/emotional support. There's nothing more calming than logging into AIM and seeing your buddies all displayed… This is shared context, an opportunity for intimacy… much of the content that we share in everyday life is about maintaining intimacy. We check in with one another. We share {{hugs}}.

 

So, i have to ask... what kinds of social/emotional support does technology provide you? How? Is this about supporting everyday interactions or providing access to a whole new world of support?

Since I work at home, technology is my lifeline to an awful lot of my social support, especially if you include the good old telephone as technology. That and cell phones – my friends are always calling me while they’re stuck on the roads commuting somewhere – keep me in touch with friends when busy lives and driving distances keep us from seeing each other on a regular basis. My daily experience is not like the TV show Friends where everyone is constantly physically underfoot. The phone and sometimes email are a necessity to maintain our connections. Even my 70-something parents keep in touch by email.

As for my weblog, it does provide “access to a whole new world of support” as danah says. I don’t have AIM, but I do have comments left by blog-friends and I can visit their blogs every day to check in with how they’re doing. It is a supportive experience for me and, yes, can be very calming. It doesn’t replace face-to-face interactions with friends and loved ones, but it definitely adds an on-going source of social/ emotional support.

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