Article written by Joanne Lee, The Straits Times, September 26, 2009
After spending some of my recent leave with friends who are mothers, I discovered a whole new world on the Internet. It’s the nursery of the World Wide Web, to use an analogy I heard earlier this week. A speaker at this week’s Social Media World Asia 2009 conference likened networks of Internet users of various ages to the different rooms in a house. For teenagers, their online pursuits were likely to proclaim their affinities, much like their bedrooms, bearing large “do not enter” signs on their doors. For adults, activities were more social, in a living room-type manner.
It makes sense then that the world I recently learnt of, the domain of mothers-to-be, is like the nursery. This room doesn’t include websites of motherhood publications or childcare companies. I am referring to mothers themselves who use the proliferation of social tools online for information, education and entertainment. And with two-thirds of Singapore’s population leading active online lives, this online nursery is thriving.
Many of my friends, the minute they found out they were pregnant, started blogs to document their pregnancies. Most start with “OMG (oh my god), I’m pregnant”, feature ultrasound scans and eventually photos of the radiant hospital-gown-clad mothers and their brand new progeny. Some get creative by writing in a “Dear Baby Jane, we just found out you are a girl” way and leave moving letters on the Web for their children to read when they are older. It’s a great way for someone like me who is not involved to keep in touch with pregnant friends, and later, with mother and babies.
For mothers, the Internet has become a wonderful cathartic way to talk about motherhood, the excitement, the milestones and the woes. Many who start blogs also link up with others going through the same experiences – from prenatal classes and breathing techniques to postnatal sleep problems. There’ve been at least three instances when I’ve asked Friend A how she knew Friend B, only to discover they befriended each other online through my network – unbeknown to me – simply because they were interested in what other mothers were up to.
Indeed, the social networks have long picked up on this with websites like Cafemom and Momjunction, which allow Facebook-type interaction between mothers. These social networking communications serve to bring mothers together – women who, in previous generations, might have felt isolated. It’s almost like a village midwife drawing women together to talk about their experiences.
Aside from these blogging and social networking avenues, Twitter has also become a huge channel for mothers. They use the micro-blogging tool to tell their friends and followers about they were interrupted during a work presentation when “Little One” gave an almighty kick to their sternum, or how they’re sleepless because they are so nervous about their toddler’s first day at playschool.
One of my friends even came close to tweeting during her delivery. She tweeted the 60-odd-hour coutdown to her scheduled Caesarean – from spending the sleepless hours spending currency on a virtual game (a sure sign of her losing her mind), to eating snowskin mooncakes before having having to fast for the C-section, to travelling excitedly to Mount Alvernia, to the wonderful declaration: “Announcing the arrival of Sophie! Baby’s healthy but mummy’s sore and exhausted. What an experience!”
This online nursery, of course, doesn’t just involve mothers sharing their pre- or post-natal concerns. It also includes the new ways they have to entertain their toddlers. A friend told me her sister had a YouTube clip bookmarked on her computer for easy access to her baby’s favorite version of the Alphabet Song – a Sesame Street video of ABC with Ray Charles. These on-demand videos aren’t used by mothers just to keep their babies entertained at home either. Just this week at a restaurant, I saw a mother whip out her smartphone to play downloaded videos to keep her toddler stimulated at the lunch table.
All too soon, these Internet-enabled babies will grow into the next generation of netizens – replete with baby histories carefully documented by their mothers in Facebook accounts started before they were born. But before they embark on their own Web careers, they will remain in this special online nursery, a part of their mothers’ own Internet lives. It’s interesting – and touching – to see their nursery world thriving online. One wonders what effect the behavior of their Net-savvy mothers will have on the next generation as it moves out of the online nursery.