the family that blogs together...

Epoch director Matt Lenski IM'd this to me few weeks back. It got me thinking about my family

My sister Susan started blogging in November 2007. She blogs about pop culture from her own unique view - tv, movies, politics, music, book, and whatever else interests her. She has great taste and has been on good roll recently. You should read it. 

My sister Joanne aka "The Gotham Gal" has been writing a blog since October of 2003. She has established an amazing niche and a large following as a nouveau guru on urban domesticity. She also provides a roadmap for those wanting to remain culturally in touch after 40.

My brother in law, Fred, a blogger since September 2003, sets the standard in the venture capital world and beyond with over 100,000 unique visitors a month. 

It doesn't end there. My oldest niece Jessica, 18 years old, posts her own photographs relating to her life experiences. My other niece Emily, 16 years old, is yet another family blogger. She posts about fashion and being a teen in NYC. And then there is me. 

A couple weeks ago driving back from Emma Bochner's bat mitzvah with my sisters and brother in law, I was talking about the top basketball players of all time. I explained how Bill Simmons dissected the list in his recent book. I turned to Susan and said, "You should do a posting of the all time top TV heroes. It's right in your blog wheelhouse. Tony Soprano is the Michael Jordan. The undisputed best. Archie Bunker is like Bill Russell. Big time winner. Set the standard but would he hold up in today's game. Don Draper is the Lebron. He has the potential to unseat Tony Soprano but has a long way to go." She humored me for a bit debating the placement of Mary Tyler Moore. There was time to kill in the car.

The conversation moved on and Joanne brought up how she had some connection to Dee Snider from "Twisted Sister". He wanted to have dinner with her and Fred to discuss how to enhance his brand on the web via social media. She seemed hesitant about committing to the meal. I jumped all over her. She had to go just for the post alone. Imagine the title "My Dinner with Dee" and a picture of him in full make-up. It practically writes itself and BANG you just knocked out a day of posting. 

Fred then turned to me and said "You're obsessed."  

I responded, "When you write 5 times a week, you need as much fodder as you can get." 

"Try doing it 7...and guest bloggers don't count"

I thought for a minute, "Does picture of the day?"

Why is my family so into blogging? Do we believe what we say has that much value? Must we make our views public? Are we obsessed with technology? Do we just love to write? Or share? Are we just ultra competitive? It's probably a combination of all of the above and a few other things I probably omitted. 

Whatever the reason I love reading them all. At some point in life if I curated all our postings and pictures, a family history would emerge. Something we can reflect on and share with future family generations. It's all digitally stored and available at the touch of your fingertips. For that reason alone I think it's pretty cool. And, then of course there is the street cred.