Social Media and Parenting

Since I started staying home with Jupiter a couple years ago, my social media usage has gone way up. The thing is, being a stay at-home parent can be lonely. Social media counters that nicely.

I first discovered Twitter while I was still working, but it gained new value once it was the majority of my social interaction. I made a lot of friends with it. Most of them local. I would later meet many of them in person. Many of them, I noticed, we're parents as well.

I had used my Facebook account for years and there is a huge mix of people on it. During the day there are many parents on it too, however I did not really connect with new people through Facebook. Facebook has always been a tool that I use to connect with people I already know.

Google+ has entered the arena recently. I have found that it is the best social network for connecting with people who fit a certain group, such as "Stay At-Home Dads" for me. The other night after a single search for that term, I have a "Dads" circle that is 200 users large. The only reason that it is not larger is because I got tired. I have similarly large circles for other interests of mine.

I personally prefer Google+, but all three of these big social networks work well for not only casual socialization, but also when I need some advice from fellow parents, or some tips on how to best handle a situation. I and many other parents also like to share pictures as well as some of the silly things our kids say. A recent study that I learned about through a HuffPo article shows that parents tend to use social media more than non-parents:

The researchers were particularly interested in learning how the social media habits of parents and non-parents differed. Their finding: Parents use social media a good deal more than people without children. Parents are more likely to use social media to play games, engage in creative pursuits, and look for entertainment. In fact, the only place where non-parents used social media more than parents was when it came to dating--and even then the difference was minimal, with 13 percent of parents and 17 percent of non-parents using social media to date.

Another time when parents are more likely than non-parents to use social media is when they want to find out information about a product or service. Of those surveyed, 71 percent of parents used social media to read consumer feedback about goods and services, while only 64 percent of non-parents did.

I certainly have used the internet for much of the past decade and a half to look for consumer product information, and of course this translates to parenting products as well. I doubt that many would find this surprising, but I thought it was an interesting tidbit.