Elderbloggers Shift the Universe

A reader recently asked if I knew there was a category of bloggers called “elderbloggers.”

I had to confess that while I know bloggers come in all ages, I was unaware of the well-established elderblogger network of blogs. I’ve since added women who identify themselves as elderbloggers to the blogroll and will be including more. (Please send your blogroll suggestions — I’m open to considering anything, but keep in mind that feminist blogs that at least occasionally discuss women’s health issues are a particularly good match.)

But let’s highlight a couple here … Start your visit with Roni Bennett’s blog, Time Goes By. Benett, a former radio and television producer and the first managing editor of CBSNews.com, recently wrote about The New York Times series on the science of aging; ordering prescription drugs from Canada; and age bias in the television series starring Julia Louis Dryfus, “The Old Adventures of New Christine.”

Here is an excerpt from her about page:

One of the best parts of running Time Goes By is being part of a cultural phenomenon – blogging – discovering and promoting its particular benefits for elders. Blogging enhances critical and analytical thinking, increases access to quality information, and combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction. At a time in life, due to retirement from the workforce, children and grandchildren living in faraway places and friends dying, blogging creates a vital social network that is keeping more elders healthier and involved than they have ever had the opportunity to be.

You can also listen to Bennett discuss blogging at a 2005 BlogHer panel titled “How to Get Naked” — referring not to bloggers who undress for webcams but rather what it’s like to discuss personal/private issues in a public forum.

Bennett’s blog features a long list of male and female elderbloggers and some honorary elderbloggers who have not yet celebrated their 50th birthday. Bloggers of all ages are welcome to take part in the Elderblogger PhoneCon Oct. 24 — a chance to talk with other bloggers during a six-hour window. It may even include a few performances.

Another blog you should visit soon is A Little Red Hen, where Naomi Dagen Bloom writes about “peace, politics, yarnlife after 60.” Bloom’s posts often include lovely photos of her work or other art.

If it all sounds a bit too tame for you, well, know that Bloom is also a crafty composter, creator of Condom Amulets — cool handknit pouches for carrying condoms — and an activist who focuses on HIV awareness for women over age 50. Here’s the safe sex archive of entries.

“Feminism, women in community, concerned grandmothers. elderbloggers — whatever title you choose — we have many faces,” Bloom wrote this summer, channelling Emma Goldman. “We are shifting the universe.”