Mom & Me Four Archive

...specifically those at Alzheimer's Disease Information: I spent some time last night reading through both the "civilian" blogs at that site (Dorian's and Lydia's), then spot read the other three, all of which I consider "commercial" productions. I'm not fond of any of the blogs. The personal experiences and the advice seem canned, although there were a few moments when I thought, "ahhh...yes, there's the caregiver who is writing this blog". None of them, as well, have that, "ohmygod, guess what happened today...and I wasn't prepared" quality which is the music of private blogs. But, I'm still pleased that caregiver blogging has reached the commercial sphere. From what I understand of the blog sphere, commercial blogs are more, rather than less, likely to drive people to seek private efforts. By their "canned" quality, I think they create a hunger for the real thing. That's pretty much what has happened in the world of political blogs. First came the personal ones. Then, commercial political enterprises attempted to co-opt private blogs. Then, in response, private political blogs exploded in opposition to commercial attempts at opinion making. Now, private political blogs are regularly cited in commercial political blogs, in an attempt by commercial blogs to remain "hip" and attract traffic, however momentary. The same thing happened with tech blogs. My guess is that this will also happen with caregiver blogs. The initial private caregiver blog mushroom has already begun. I notice that it seems to have started this year; the majority of private blogs to which I've been directed were started this year. The commercial site also started this year, just a few months behind the private caregiver blog mushroom. This is why I celebrate commercial attempts to enter the caregiver blog sphere, and am listing them. The more caregivers click into them, the more likely caregivers will feel as though they need to tell their story on their own terms, I think.