So. The survey results are still coming in, THANK YOU for your terrific responses! Here's one tasty tidbit from the Statistics Department: 66% of you said you spend more than 10 hours a week online. Of that, 30% said you spend more than 20 hours online. YEAH HONEY. Work that keyboard!

Obviously not all of that time is spent directly related to digital scrapbooking. Perhaps you play online games, or chat with friends and family, and we all spend time emailing, right?  I actually do think that as digital (and hybrid) scrapbookers, we probably spend more time online than the average person, since our supplies are here, but I also suspect we might spend more time online because our communities are here, too.  And I 'm wondering about that today - how important to you is sharing your work, your life, your hobby with others online? And related to this - how important is it to participate in the work, life, and hobby of others who scrapbook? {...}

I really LOVE going through galleries to see the work that others have done. More than anything, this shows me how COOL this hobby is - that we can celebrate the big and little stories in our lives AND share those experiences with people all over the world who get it. 

I can point in my own life to my dear friend Liv, who I met right here at JessicaSprague.com. Liv is from the Philippines, and we are exactly 12 hours apart. So she's just waking up when I'm going to sleep, and vice versa (except she sleeps a LOT less than I do!). I would NEVER have just 'run into' Liv on the street, obviously. But our common hobby and our desire to share connected us almost immediately during a class here, and now, we chat almost every day. She has become a lifelong friend, and someone whose opinions, insights, courage, and optimism have changed my life forever. (I also got to meet her last year, and she is as fabulous in person as she is online!)

I will say, that part of the reason this happened is because we were sharing. I think it takes some courage to put yourself out there online, to actively make yourself a part of a community, and become visible. But the reward in friendship and connectedness can be amazing.

For me, there is so much power in knowing there are other people, however different they may be from us otherwise, who get what this scrapbooking thing is about. That it's partly about supplies (ahem), and partly about skills, and storytelling, and making beautiful things with your hands, and it's also about creativity, and remembering, and leaving a legacy. We find meaning in scrapbooking as an act of celebration, not only because it enriches us as we create, but we believe that what we're making will be valuable to other people, too.

So, how important to you is sharing online? Whether that's pages, photos, stories, tutorials/hints/helps, message board posts, etc. Do you have a daily online routine that helps you keep a grasp on the industry? Why do you go where you go?