I found an article on Dr. Mercola’s website titled: 12 Surprising Signs You’ll Live To 100
One of the “surprising signs” is:
You embrace techie trends
Learn to Twitter, Facebook, or Skype to help keep brain cells young and healthy. Stay connected to friends, family, and current events, and you feel vital and relevant.
I like the part where he says, “you feel vital and relevant”. That’s important in everyone’s life.
Today’s Lesson
Speaking of using our brains, according to an article on the University of Connecticut Health Center site,
“The old adage of ‘use it or lose it’ is very important. For cognitive activity, which affects everything from memory to how we think, there is increasing evidence that the more we use our brain, the better we age….”
Some of you who are young may not take this into consideration, but for bloggers from the baby boomer generation and beyond, it’s important we think of how we’re using our brains. How we’re exercising them.
Fortunately blogging does that.
- It keeps us connected.
- It gives us something to look forward to
- We read more
- We write more
- We think more
- We learn more.
Another plus to blogging; age is not a factor.
Take for example, the following three women who held the title as “The World’s Oldest Blogger”; women who were in their 90′s and 100′s.
The one I remember best, because I had visited her blog, is Olive Riley (1899-2008). Although her blog is no longer online, you can see video clips of her on YouTube.
María Amelia López Soliño (1911-2009) was another blogger who held the title and was written about in this article; Spanish granny dubbed ‘world’s oldest blogger’ dies.
In one of her last postings in February [2009] she said: “When I’m on the Internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you — being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength.”
According to Wikipedia, Ruth Hamilton (1898-2008) was also named “the world’s oldest blogger”.
Unfortunately the above three bloggers have died, but others are following in their footsteps. We have,
- Life Begins At 80
- Bisher Unleashed
- Granny To The Rescue,
A blog written by a 91 year old retired journalist.
Written by Furman Bisher, a well-regarded sportswriter and editor who was born in 1918.
A blog written by Eleanor McCallum, a woman in her early eighties.
These elderly folks probably aren’t worried about being included with A-List bloggers, but their commitment to blogging shows us it’s never too late to go online, share our knowledge and in the process continue to use our brains.
Today’s Assignment:
How has blogging improved your mental processes?
Are you following the writings of any elderly bloggers?
Care to share?
Hi. I'm Barbara Swafford & I'd like to welcome you to Blogging Without A Blog. Grab a seat, share your thoughts and join in the conversation. 
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When I started blogging in 2007, I didn’t see anyone else with the name of “Barbara” commenting on the blogs I frequented, so “Barbara” become the name I signed onto blogs with.
Within a short period of time that changed and I started seeing other commenters with the name Barbara.
By that time I knew I wanted to build my online presence so I added my last name.
Today’s Lesson
When I travel through blogosphere, I see many bloggers who only use their first name as their online identity.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with that, however, it can be confusing, and can be a detriment.
Example: Let’s say your name is Clifford AND you don’t use an avatar*. You comment on blogs, build your online presence and soon become well known in your area of expertise. All is good in your world.
Than along comes another avatar-less Clifford, who begins to comment on the same blogs as you do, AND his blog is in the same niche as yours.
Those of us who follow links, may assume Clifford #1 and Clifford #2 are the same person.
They’re not. but we don’t know that because there’s little or no information to differentiate between the two.
The work Clifford #1 has put into developing his online presence could take a hit while Clifford # 2 could have just gotten an unexpected boost to his readership and reputation.
That said, I realize many bloggers choose not to use their real last names, nor do you have to.
Some choices are:
This can work well for those who blog anonymously, however if the day comes when you want to “come out”, it may be necessary to do a large “media” blitz to notify those who know you by your pen name so they continue to follow you.
Keep in mind, if you do this and you want to build an online presence, be consistent and use the same pseudonym on all blogs and social media sites you frequent.
Something like “Barbara @ BWAB” (Blogging Without A Blog) is something I had considered, however at that time I already had two blogs and wanted the option of linking to either one without changing my log in name.
This can work well, except it may appear impersonal to some.
Many bloggers like to use keywords to describe themselves and their sites, however depending on the keywords, your login name can appear spammy.
For anyone trying to build their online presence, the name we use becomes crucial as it can follow us forever on the world wide web.
What say you?
Today’s Assignment
How did you choose the name you use online?
Have you ever encountered confusion because two or more bloggers have the same name?
Care to share?
This post was inspired by part of what Kelvin Kao said in his comment on the *Who’s Who In Blogosphere post,