Toy Story Syndrome

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This weekend Zoe and I took the train to LA to visit my parents and go to a friend's daughter's birthday party at the American Girl Place. While we make the drive all the time, this was the first time Zoe and I took the train. While I will always be a California girl to the core, there are times when the cost of living, crowding, job market in San Diego makes me want to pack it in and move. I need to remember this train ride the next time I think that way. Honestly, the 30 minutes between Oceanside and San Juan Capistrano may be the most beautiful 30 minutes I've ever travelled. But, I digress. We took the train and Jason and Lucas were supposed to meet us up in LA Saturday night after a rugby tournament.

When we got to AG Place the next morning, all the other girls had a special carrier for their dolls. I told Zoe she could get one thing there, and she chose this particular bag to carry her doll in. At one point during the lunch, Zoe handed me Kanani to hold. While other mothers may have laid the doll on the floor, or on a chair, I actually sat there, holding Kanani in my lap. One of the other moms made a comment that it looks like I really love that doll. While my main thinking was that I'm not going to put the $100 doll in her $40 outfit on the store to get trampled on, I realized that it was more than that. I didn't want the doll sitting on the floor, missing the party while all the other dolls were sitting at the table. Yes, I anthropomorphized the doll.

But this isn't anything new. Ever since reading the Velveteen Rabbit as a child I have thought of special toys as having feelings of their own. A child's love can turn an inanimate object "real." And thanks to the Toy Story franchise, I now "believe" that toys come to life the moment we leave the room. When we were moving a few years ago, I found myself actually telling Zoe's Woody doll not to worry that we would find his hat, and then actually being excited when I did find his hat hours later in another corner of the house.

A few weeks ago, Zoe misplaced "Yubbie" (her lovey - a pink blanket with a bear that she's had since she was born). Yubbie never left the house, so it's here - somewhere - stuck in a random closet/cupboard/pile of junk. The first night we noticed it missing, Zoe decided to sleep with a stuffed fox that my mom got her for Christmas. "Foxy" was a soft, squish-able stuffed animal that has become a favorite and quickly attached itself to our hearts. So yes, Foxy made the trip to LA with us this weekend.

After a long, cold and rainy tournament on Saturday, Lucas and Jason decided to not come up to LA. No problem: Zoe and I would just take the relaxing train home Sunday afternoon. After almost leaving Foxy at my parents' house, Zoe clung to her Yubbie replacement in the car on the way to the train station. After getting out of the car I stuck Foxy in the bag with Kanani that I was carrying. Union Station in LA was crowded and hectic. We got to the train, claimed our seats and settled in for the 2 hour ride. Right before our stop, I grabbed all our bags. I did a once over noting that we had my iPad, my phone, Kanani, 2 backpacks and our duffle bag. We got off the train just as Jason and Lucas were driving up. It wasn't until bedtime last night that we noticed that Foxy did not make it home. After checking the car, all the bags, calling my parents, it was apparent that Foxy was gone. I even called Amtrak on the off chance that someone turned her in, but alas, Foxy is gone.

All night I kept thinking of poor Foxy, all alone, cold and possibly wet from the rain as she lay somewhere between Los Angeles and Oceanside. I hope that she knows she was loved and that maybe another child picked her up to give her love and years of cuddles. And then I realized...

I'm freaking insane. 

 

Teh Lame: Why do your crap posts get the most attention?

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A change is in the air in the blogosphere. I don't think anyone really knows what it is, but something is brewing. The status quo for the life of a blogger isn't cutting it anymore. The pennies being paid to the blogging masses for content and sidebar ads are just not equaling the amount of time and vested interest one has in their posts anymore. Becoming brand ambassadors, working with agents and {GASP} actually being paid for our thoughts is the talk of the town. Dare I say a blogosphere revolution is at hand?

Like most, what I started in 2006 as a creative outlet is now a business and a personal brand. While I once hid my blog from prospective employers, my various blogs are now proudly displayed on the top of my resume. It's no longer about free drinks. Its now about how I can successfully support my family using my talents. I'm not kidding myself into thinking I'm the only one out there with that goal. Hundreds of other bloggers out there share my mindset, and hundreds are actually doing it. In this business I talk a lot with people all over the nation about what we are doing, where we hope to go - goals, aspirations, etc. I always come back to content. I've always thought that good content was the key to success, but honestly, that's not the case. 

As we grow and begin to analyze our traffic we are all noticing the same thing - the crap posts are the ones that get read. 

Half asleep, we throw up a rant about Starbucks, desperate for content we write about fall nail trends - and these are the posts that catch fire. Whether they were Stumbled, Pinned or Shared on Facebook, we watch these posts rake in hundreds and thousands of hits. Meanwhile, the beautiful ode to your life-changing decision sits stale, dust gathering on the hit counter. The poignant post you threw your day into about the state of the Mommy Wars goes unnoticed while people are STILL reading about fall nail trends well into the winter months. 

So I ask. Why are the lame posts getting read and the good posts not? 

Is it that the Internet, like the general population, just seems to be getting dumber? Is it that more and more people read blogs from work or from mobile devices - where they only have a moment to decompress, thus leading to the mindless fodder? Honestly, I don't know the answer. But as a blogger and a writer and a professional, it's a little sad to see. Since our pay is based on traffic, as bloggers are we dumbing ourselves down to a traffic generating level? And if we haven't yet - is it only a matter of time until we do? And then what? Then what does the blogosphere become? 

On the flip side, when it comes to actually making decent money from our blogs, we are only as good as our traffic. Retail stores don't carry items that don't sell, so why shouldn't you offer the public what they want? 

So I'm throwing it out there to fellow bloggers - do you notice this same trend on your blog? Are you mindful of this when you write posts?