Balancing Life Online and Offline

It has been a few years since I regularly blogged but I’m want to get back into it.  I first started blogging in 2012 to catalog  my adventures in Seoul, South Korea, and share them with my family.   LiveLearnTravelTeach was born on WordPress while  I wrote about life in Asia.  I  shared countless photos and adventures which eventually turned into LiveTravelTeach as you see it today.  From one adventure to the next, many of you know that I landed in Alaska where I met my wife, Elizabeth, and recently welcomed Emmalynn, our beautiful baby girl, into the world.

Photo by Emmie Jackson

Another impetus for my writing was to keep a journal for good ole-fashion nostalgia as my photography improved my writing style evolved, and I garnered a few faithful readers.  I learned HTML and SEO basics to help new posts rank on Google while teaching myself to develop photos in Lightroom, add watermarks, and shrink them in Photoshop so they’ll load quickly online.  I developed a workflow that had me posting a few times per week.  I balanced my digital footprint with my everyday life and loved sharing with everyone.

Neighbor’s Cabin on Christiansen Lake with Denali above

But as I learned more about the intricacies of it all I realized that I wanted to take a step back from the computer and focus more on in-person life.  My withdrawal from blogging and the digital world became even more apparent when Elizabeth and I started planning a family.   I posted less on social media and shared less here on Live, Travel, Teach.  I did this for a few reasons, most notably that I wanted to focus on enjoying the moment, living my life OFFline as I built the foundation for our marriage, worked on my teaching career, and got ready to be a father.  Limited spare time went to exploring Alaska instead of writing, editing, and managing a website.

Moose in Denali National Park with Fall Colors

Truthfully the most tedious task of my blog was editing all the posts.  I still journaled plenty and certainly didn’t stop taking photos or going on adventures.  If anything, courting and marrying Elizabeth led to more adventures than ever!  I simply stopped sharing about most of them.

Photo by Emmie Jackson

Knowledge about the internet has grown tremendously since I first logged into AOL and sent my messages over AIM.  Privacy and the word “perpetuity” convinced me to curate my content more.  I thought carefully before pushing “share” or “publish.”  I deleted a few questionable posts and left many drafts unpublished.   I watched as social media evolved noticing suddenly teens addicted to TikTok and boomers addicted to Wordle.  (It’s okay, I’m addicted to Wordle too)

Elizabeth Skiing at Sheep Mountain Lodge

Some of my adventures made it onto the blog, especially national park trips and epic overnights.  I planned ahead and  made time for my writing process promising myself that I’d share some specific trips. Maybe you read about hiking our Tour du Mont Blanc hiking for a week through the French, Swiss, & Italian Alps, or the handful of Alaskan backpacking trips that made it on the blog.  But I mostly stopped writing about day-to-day life in Alaska.  Instead of sharing my daily life, I focused on living my life.

Backpacking the Bomber Traverse with Brett, Chelsea & Elizabeth

I hiked more.  I skied more.  I hung out with my wife more.  I ran my first two half-marathons, played countless hours of strategy board games, and trained for long-distance ski and bike races as I went from posting here a few times per month to a few times per year.   I’ve backpacked and stayed in cabins with picturesque views all over Alaska.  I taught myself how to take a photo of the northern lights then began stringing together thousands of photos to create videos of the aurora borealis dancing across the sky.  All of this instead of revising and editing blog posts.
Mike & Elizabeth on a frozen Maud Lake, Palmer, Alaska

I also focused heavily on building a teaching life that I found engaging, rewarding, and challenging.  I perfected lesson plans while building my first teaching partnership with Linda, then celebrated her retirement, and then began a new teaching partnership with Kari. I worked with colleagues to design the best lessons, field trips, and overnight camps.  I was even selected to run EdTech workshops and conferences to share how I leverage my digital knowledge to enhance my classroom.

Linda and Mike on an overnight field trip to Seward, Alaska

Then, in early 2024 everything changed again as I welcomed my beautiful daughter, Emmalynn, into the world!  I thought about writing a post for just her. I even sat down to journal about dad-life numerous times.  I have those drafts, but it didn’t feel right to work on publishing anything while I was figuring out how to be a dad. 

Emmlynn as a newborn

It was not enough to share a quick photo or post about my baby and at the same time I worried about sharing too much online.   After all, I’d recently dialed back my own digital footprint; I wanted to make sure our family found the right balance for Emmalynn’s digital footprint.  I wanted to metaphorically shout from the rooftops how cute and beautiful and amazing and charming and wonderful my daughter is.   Once or twice I loudly proclaimed my love for my daughter on the back deck;  but that neighborhood ruckus doesn’t leave a mark that could last hundreds of years in a digital future.

Elizabeth, Emmalynn & Mike at the Cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska

I’ve watched adults battle video game and cell phone addictions.  I’ve watched social media tear apart friendships and divide families.  I’ve seen parents overshare about their kids life and cringed as I thought what that kid would think when they are old enough to understand it all.  Elizabeth and I became more purposeful about both what we share, but also how we use devices and the internet around Emmalynn.

Kathie, Jerry, Mike & Emmalynn Still at the Glen Alps, Anchorage, Alaska

The world doesn’t yet know the full effect of growing up with the internet, cell phones and modern social media and I’d rather be cautious on that front.  I know families whose kids are never mentioned in their digital footprint, and other families whose kids ARE their digital footprint.  We are striving for a balance between the two. 

Emmalynn & Mike at the Cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska

Balance means giving Emmalynn my undivided attention and carving out separate time for blogging.  (Like right now while Emmalynn is at her 3rd day of daycare and I’ve got a few hours to myself!)

Balance means writing for fun, not just for Google.  Balance means sharing more photos, not just my best photos.

Balance means caring a little less about trying to land sponsors, and more about sharing my writing and my photos.

This post is here to inspire me to figure out that balance.

Emmalynn & Mike at the Cabin on Little O’Malley, Anchorage, Alaska