Social Media to the Rescue

It’s true. I use ‘social media’ regularly, though I have yet to create a Twitter account.  When I do I won’t tell you my #name, but reserve the right to just creep on #others (don’t you love the phrases that are now part of our everyday vocabulary?!)

I know not everyone is enamored with Facebook and Reddit and Twitter and Tumblr and Pinterest and whatevertheheck is out there I have yet to hear about. But, there are plenty of good sides and benefits to cyber connecting. The negatives abound, but I’m not choosing to focus on those here. There’s enough scary press and conniving advertisers and data hungry machines out there to make anyone want to become a hermit. The NSA might discover that you eat dark chocolate, drink craft brew, like searching for Petoskey stones and listen to The Rabid Raccoons, but life is a risk and often, risks are worth taking.

This week my favorite stomping grounds were devastated by water and mud. The epic Colorado floods have damaged dreams and taken out lives and property. I don’t  live nearby, but I have family and friends who do, so I am watching closely. When cell phones and landlines and other services were down, towns and businesses and resorts took to Twitter and Facebook to notify thousands! Kids on field trips in the mountains were safe, but stranded, and FB came to the rescue to notify parents that pizza and charades were happening. FB shared times for community meetings and road closures and helped relatives to know that family was safe. This was good. Very good.

I can’t use the phone. I’m trying with this CI now, but not successfully yet. For years I haven’t been very good at ‘lunch dates’ or ‘parties’ or ‘coffee shops’ or pretty much any other venue where live people tend to congregate. Social networking is a way for me to not feel quite so isolated in my silent little world. I’m grateful. FB and texting and email are how people know to reach me and until I learn to use the telephone again (or IF), it’s still important for me to have these technologies to simply communicate.

Happily, sometimes, personal connections come FROM cyber space. I love that! I had girlfriends show up at my house for several days because we met again on FB. What a blast that was! I stayed with a friend in England because we met again on FB.  I’m getting wise advise from other CI users all over the world because we have a group on FB. I post my digital art for feedback and offer it to others via social networking.  I found my childhood BFF on FB! The list goes on and on…

Encouragement. Growth. Face to face connections. Keeping up with far flung family and friends. Sharing photos and opinions and memories. It’s all out there.  Your list would be different, of course. But I’m grateful for the positives. This week I am trying to find a college sorority sister so I can meet her in Chicago next week. I think I found her daughter on Facebook, so I’m hopeful that will lead to brunch. Just sayin’.

Facebook

It's been a while since I signed up. I was a skeptic when my daughter's teen friend first showed me her home page. What? You are sharing your photos and life out in cyberspace where crazies lurk? Are you sure it is safe? (She had not used her first and last name...)

My concerns quickly gave way to curiosity. After curiosity came possibility. After possibility, the Plunge. I signed up. I have not looked back. I think Facebook is great!!

Why, you ask?

Now, I am a big fan of that ancient concept of Personal Communication. You know... when people sit face to face and share stories, life's hopes, philosophies and faith, dreams and recipes. I do not think gestures and the rolling of one's eyes and a touch on the arm are overrated. I believe this is the stuff of true relationships. But, hey, I don't get to see a lot of people every day. In fact, some people I have been quite fond of in the past I never get to see.

That is why I like Facebook.

For me and them, it is a quick way to touch base. To share humor and glimpses of life across the miles and truly, across the decades. I have connected with many of my college friends from, eh um, 30 years ago. It has been encouraging to see where they have ended up; to see photos of their families; and to even pray for them when challenges arise. Facebook allows this.

Better yet have been the FACE TO FACE interactions that have arisen specifically because of those cyber connections! Last summer I invited three friends who were all celebrating their 50th birthdays to come to my house for several days just to hang out and be 50 together. The ONLY way we had reconnected with via FB. Reading their status reports, I thought "this would be a really fun group to get together!" And, get together we DID! We never once talked, and yet they arrived at the appointed time at my home from Michigan, Connecticut and Japan!

We talked and played for four days and had a blast. I cannot wait to be with them again. The last time the four of us had been in the same place at the same time? 29 years ago.

That is why I like Facebook.



My mom, bless her socks (they are warm ones), has been willing to set up a page in order to keep tabs on her children and grandchildren. She's a user. But, I don't mind. As her abilities to write and communicate begin to diminish from the evil onslaught of ALS, Facebook enables her to stay connected. To participate in the mundane and distant... in the lives of our teens and young adults who live in cyberspace. (I agree, that is both good and bad.)

That is why I like Facebook.

Then there was our overnight in Newcastle Upon Tyne last summer. I found a good old friend with whom I shared summer adventures in the Rockies in the early 1980s on FB. He's a physician in England. When my husband and I decided to venture to England we set up a rendezvous (via FB) and ended up staying at their English home for a night. We met his wife, heard about his kids and enjoyed a fabulous meal together. (An English meal, no less!)

That is why I like Facebook.





Oh, the status reports are fun. Keeping tabs with my daughter at college is wonderful. Keeping my teenage son in line is necessary. But setting up lunch dates, weekend trips, overnights in other countries; connecting on blogs, enjoying photos and all the rest makes me smile.

That is why I like Facebook.