The other night I called my mom to blow off steam. My teen girls had been pushing all my buttons, as teens do, and I needed a sounding board — someone who had been there, done that. My mother reminded me that there was nothing terribly unusual with their behaviour, they were simply doing what teens have done since time began. She encouraged me to be strong, it would all be okay, and then added as an afterthought, “I’m just glad I’m not raising kids in 2017.” Um, thanks Mom? After I calmed …
Narcissism and Selfies are the New Black
If you have a tween or teenager in your life that you've no doubt noticed their self-indulgent social media behaviour. You know what I'm talking about - the endless duck face selfies posted to their Instagram feed that are filtered just perfectly to make them look like their favourite Pretty Little Liars star or Kardashian. The resultant flurry of comments from their friends consist of words like 'beautiful, perfection, gorg, and bae.' This happens until the next friend posts their very …
Pleasantville Christmas Photo A Day
At Life In Pleasantville we like to colour outside the lines, so for our first Annual Pleasantville Christmas Photo A Day Challenge we decided to begin November 25; December 1st has so been done, am I right? We’re also a bit excited about the season — SANTA’S COMING! — and we know many of you are, too. To help us remember to appreciate the little things, let’s stop and notice all the joy and silliness and fun happening around us by taking a photo that captures the mood. How To Play …
My So Called Life in Social Media
Recently, I was "unfriended" on Facebook. It's possible this has happened with others before but I never noticed. I have somewhere around 230 "friends" give or take a few but I don't watch the number count with an eagle eye so I could definitely miss it. This particular person though I did notice because in the timeline you can now see when other friends comment on other statuses, even if they're not your friends. Holy convuluted Batman, life in social media is hard, but I digress. The update …
The Internet Killed My Attention Span
The idea is that I'm supposed to step into this blog space and leave you a nice tidy little post about one thing. And herein lies the problem today. I don't have one thing. I have too many things. Way too many things. Yesterday, I attempted to sit down and work at my computer but 45 minutes in, I knew it wasn't happening. Between Buzzfeed and UpWorthy I lost my morning. Did I snap out of it and say "Get back to work, Candace?". I tried. I really did, but the suck of that damn Neil Patrick …