After being invited by Chevy to attend the Nashville Auto Show last weekend, you and I made the nearly one hour drive from our new home in Spring Hill to downtown Nashville.
I think one of your favorite vehicles to check out was the City Express. But of course, you went crazy over the Corvette; as did I.
You also enjoyed playing a dice game at the Geico booth and getting your picture made with the big gecko.
Of course, there’s no denying that perhaps your favorite part was running and jumping through the new Music City Center where the event took place.
When you and I hang out together, I always find way to help you run wild and burn off “little boy energy” in the process.
You got quite a thrill out of jumping off 4 stairs at a time. You truly are Jumping Jack Flash!
We also explored downtown Nashville a little bit.
You commented that the people riding the peddle trolleys were “too loud.”
Granted, that’s what many tourists do when they come here. They drink beer at 10:47 in the morning while shouting the lyrics to Walk the Moon’s “Shut Up and Dance”, as they ride the peddle trolleys downtown.
A stranger offered to take our picture together with the “Batman Building” in the background.
And I took your picture with the year 2010 engraved on the sidewalk, which is the year you were born.
I’m glad Chevy reached out to us about the Nashville Auto Show. By us going there, it provided good quality father and son time for us.
We can make an adventure out of anything. We can make a road trip out of a one hour commute to downtown Nashville to look at new cars and then run around the new Music City Center.
Last night I finished the 1989 movie, Back to the Future Part 2, which takes place in the future: October 2015.
I suppose now that I’m officially living in the future, it’s quite appropriate that I announce that as of last night at 9:01 PM, I am now a smart phone owner.
That makes me the last cool person you know to finally get a smart phone.
At this point, who do you know who doesn’t have one? I literally don’t know anyone in my social circle who doesn’t have a smart phone.
In fact, it’s not unheard of here in the Nashville area to see a homeless man selling newspapers to people stopped at the red lights, but then to see him check his smart phone during the green lights when the cars are no longer stopped in front of him.
I’m not sure how that all works out, but obviously, it only proves how counter-cultural my own lack of a smart phone has made me up until now.
Here’s the truth: I kind of hate smart phones. Actually, if it were up to me (it’s not- it’s up to my wife), I wouldn’t own a cell phone at all.
Sure, it’s ironic that a blogger with a YouTube channel doesn’t like the idea of always being “connected and plugged in”.
It’s just that I refuse to become another cliché who looks down at my phone to acknowledge another Facebook “like” while you are trying to talk to me, face to face in real time. It’s perhaps my rebellion of that cliche that keeps from wanting to be so connected and plugged in.
After all, a guy I recently met at Whole Foods, Jarrid Wilson, did a blog post that went viral; which addresses this social issue: “Why I Am Getting a Divorce in 2014.”
He’s actually talking about “divorcing” his smart phone.
See, that’s the whole point. I despise the concept of naturally and gradually disconnecting from real life via a smart phone, allowing myself to believe the illusion that what’s going on in my Facebook feed is more important than my family right in front of me.
It reminds me of the 1980 Genesis song, “Turn It on Again”. The protagonist of the song watches TV so much that he begins to get lonely when the characters of his favorite shows aren’t on. I see a parallel with people who constantly check and update social media, via their smart phones:
“I can show you some of the people in my life
It’s driving me mad just another way of passing the day
I, I get so lonely when she’s not there
Turn it on, turn it on, turn it on again
Turn it on, turn it on, turn it on again
I can see another face”
Someone on my Facebook page for Family Friendly Daddy Blog immediately asked me last night, after I posted my 1st official Instagram post (featured below), what made me decide to finally get a smart phone.
Here’s my answer:
After being with Verizon for at least a dozen years, things finally got to the point with where they no longer offered incentives to faithful customers like me to stay; customers who always paid on time; no more free phones, for sure. Those days are gone.
I even walked in to my Verizon store to calmly explain I would be leaving them if they couldn’t provide me a free “dumb phone” to keep my budget the same; since I was nearing the end of my latest 2 year contract.
Verizon sincerely yet simply apologized they could not. I tried.
This time around, it was going to cost just as much to have “regular service” with them, as it would to finally just get a smart phone.
So now my wife and I are with a hilariously named service provider called Puppy Wireless; which is basically a 3rd party that uses Verizon’s towers.
Here’s the one and only part of being a smart phone owner that excites me:
There’s a good chance I can grow my “blog business” because of it.
I now have access to Instagram, which means I am more attractive to Acorn, an influence company I have worked with a little on the side.
For example, I did a project for them earlier in the summer in which I promoted the mobile app game, Best Fiends, by featuring the product in a Jack-Man video I made, in lieu of an Instagram post.
With my Instagram account @nickshellwrites, which is the same as my Twitter handle, I am pretty sure I will find myself with a much steadier stream of blogging gigs through Acorn, which pays me to advertise for their clients.
Also with that in the pipeline, my YouTube channel has finally begun to start making me some money. Plus, in the near future, I will be featuring ads on my blog for Beacon Ads; a Christian company who found my “family friendly” daddy blog to be appropriate for their advertisers.
Over this next year, I am going to really be making a much more conscious effort to make my blog more of a business; not just a hobby.
And as much as I don’t want to admit it, a smart phone can be a great tool to help make that happen.
One of the main reasons I refused to get a smart phone all this time is because I refused to change my budget over it. But if I can make up the financial loss of having to pay for a data plan, not to mention my phone, I suppose it’s worth it if it also leads to me actually making money.
I am a bitter, cheap, old man. I just happen to only be 34 years old.
Sure, I have a smart phone now… but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.
I am very aware of the importance of knowing my audience, so that I can better create content for what people want to be entertained by while they’re trying to kill time on smart phones.
They don’t have a lot in common… They are segregated by gender demographics.
Most of the people reading Family Friendly Daddy Blog are women…
Women
72%
Men
27%
While most of the people watching my videos on YouTube are men:
MALE
83%
FEMALE
17%
For my Jack-Man series, I spend a minimum of 6 hours per video (writing, filming, producing music, editing, publishing) and there are currently 22 Jack-Man videos. When you do the math, that’s a minimum of 132 hours (or 5.5 straight days) of work for that series; and I only started the series 5 months ago.
However, I’m lucky to get 100 views on any of my Jack-Man videos. All that creativity mainly goes unwatched.
Meanwhile, I’ve carelessly thrown together a few unedited and unscripted videos on receding hairlines on my YouTube channel.
Those are the videos that easily get more than 100 views every day.
That’s because it’s mainly men are watching my YouTube channel, not as many women.
And mainly women are reading my blog, not as many men.
So now, behind the scenes, I am sketching out the best ways to blend my blog posts with my videos.
Ultimately, I guess it means that I’ll be publishing more blog posts about receding hairlines to feature my receding hairline videos, and making more videos about parenting to feature my usual daddy blog material.
I am attempting to use my blog to promote my videos and my videos to promote my blog.
So when you see me doing blog posts on seemingly irrelevant material, just know it’s for the other half of my demographics: men.
Simply put, I’m now consolidating a week’s worth of social media activity into just a couple of hours per week; during a specific window of time, from now on…
Starting 2 weeks ago, I began only publishing new posts here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog on Thursday nights.
Similarly, I am now only logging into Facebook (as well as all other forms of social media; it helps that I don’t have a smart phone) just once a week now on Thursday nights, when I publish my new posts for the week.
I’m also done paying any attention to my “home” page on Facebook, where it shows everyone’s status updates. I just don’t see how that daily exposure is enhancing my life; it only seems to complicate it.
My addiction and attention span to “keeping up” with all that stuff is apparently expired.
I guess moving into our new house has sort of… recalibrated my priorities and changed my mindset.
Ultimately, I don’t want the video game of Facebook or my hobby of blogging to interfere with the actual reality of my life with my family.
I’ve come to the realization that I no longer have to pressure myself the way I did when I was writing for Parents.com for those 3 years when I did The Dadabase.
Something I’ve learned is that I ultimately get as much traffic no matter when I post new stuff, so I might as well just save it all for one day each week.
It’s similar to concept of “binge watching” premium TV shows like Breaking Bad and Man Men. Instead, I’ll be “binge posting” my new publications each Thursday night here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog.
That way I don’t have to be constantly preoccupied with publishing new stuff throughout the week; therefore dividing my attention all week long. Now I can actually live my life with my family without that distraction.
Over the past couple of years now, I’ve struggled with my relationship with Facebook. I see now I used to put way too much thought into it.
Recently we had to go 4 days without Internet as we moved in the new house, and once I did finally check my Facebook, I realized I actually didn’t miss anything.
While Facebook is full of people I care a lot about, the overall emotional intelligence of status updates in my daily feed ultimately seems to clutter my life; not enhance it. I am choosing to pull the plug on my daily exposure to that large daily nose of negativity and sarcasm.
If I am thinking about someone I’m friends with on Facebook, I can go straight to their profile page on Facebook. That way I don’t have to feel compelled to rely on my “home” page to find out on what is supposed to be my social news for the day.
I discovered the people I most wish to be like in my circle of friends are the ones who are the least active on Facebook and the most active with their families away from social media.
It’s true; I used to be much more involved with Facebook, as I attempted to be clever and engaging. These days, I suppose I’ve just moved on with my life.
Maybe it’s because this is truly the most settled I’ve felt since getting married.
For the first two years I was married, my wife was getting her Master’s Degree. Then once she received it, she got pregnant with our son.
Next we moved to Alabama to be closer to family and went further into debt; only to eventually move back to Nashville. After that, we had to completely work our way out of debt, other than our mortgage on our townhouse (while I studied for my certification for Human Resources). Finally, we were able tosave up enough money for a down payment on a bigger, more efficient house for our lifestyle.
Now that we’re in our new house, and not in debt, and having more quality time together as a family in our new suburban life, I am experiencing a feeling of completeness I haven’t previously known with my wife and son.
I’m thinking that now, I can just enjoy this new house with my family.
So I invite you to tune in every Thursday night, when you can catch up with our new simple life. You don’t even have to go to Facebook; you could just subscribe to Family Friendly Daddy Blog by clicking on the button at the top of this page.
As for Friday through Wednesday, you probably won’t hear a peep out of me.
I’m sure certain exceptions will pop up along the way, but they will definitely be the exception to the rule.
But as it concerns my own personal schedule, I’m choosing to unplug from social media now, except for on Thursday nights.
I know nothing about how to take care of a baby, yet. But what I do know, and what I have always known when it comes to babies is how to make them laugh and play with them. In the way that women instinctively speak in a high, falsetto voice to babies (I’ve read that that’s the frequency babies hear when they’re that young, as opposed to a normal speaking voice), I automatically become any given idiot monster when I find myself in a situation where a baby is looking at me, waiting for some kind of confirmation.
The default character I play while entertaining babies could best be described as Popeye mixed with Grimace mixed with Beaker: A smiling, squinty-eyed, beeping mutant. But what can I say? Babies like me when I am this fictional goofball.
And really, that’s what happens to any adult when a baby is set in front of them. Adults become ridiculous. That’s one of the many reasons people like babies. Because adults get a free pass to act stupid. All in the name of making a baby happy.
Needless to say, I am so looking forward to my free pass.
All pictures with the “JHP” logo were taken by Joe Hendricks Photography:
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 