HW 9: Applying Graff, Chapter 4 to Waldman

In Ayelet Waldman’s interview “A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night, Waldman talks about her experience with blogs. She says that blogs saved her life because when she posted a suicide note, people responded and helped her through a rough time. In this interview, the interviewer states,” She says that writing so openly about her personal life was draining both her and her husband of story ideas. Plus it was taking up too much spare time--usually two or three hours a day.” By focusing on blogs, Waldman overlooks the deeper problems of family. She was so consumed with writing blogs, she overlooked the important aspects of her life, her children and husband. By spending so much time on the computer, it probably did not help with her bipolar disorder.
On the other hand I do admire when she visited the infertility and miscarriage weblogs because she sympathized with these woman and helped them through a rough time. Even though the interviewer asked “Shouldn’t you have been visiting mommy blogs or parenting blogs?” I think that her visiting these blogs, instead of the parenting blogs, does not make her a bad mother. It actually makes her a better person because she is able to help these women by relating to her own experience with her miscarriage. I think Waldman could still blog if she managed her time more efficiently. That way she could spend more time with her family and work.