KEEPING IN TOUCH

I like Facebook.  I admit it.  But before I lose the naysayers and doubters, please spare me a minute to explain.

Facebook is a means of keeping in touch, a social media tool.  And like any tool, it can be misused and abused.  I’ve heard the stories, read about the scandals.  Any tool can be threatening in the wrong hands, even a screwdriver.

Facebook can be an extraordinary tool.  It’s no wonder businesses have gotten on the social media band wagon.  They can have immediate access to their constituency.  They don’t have to wait for sales circulars to make their way through the postal system.  They can let the interested know about their White Sale instantly.

Personally, I don’t “like” many businesses on Facebook.  I don’t want to be inundated with news of the latest item on their shelves.  Instead, I want to connect with people – friends and family.

It’s incredible.  I am in contact with people I haven’t seen in years.  People I never thought I would see or hear from again.  People who touched my life at various moments and various ages and then disappeared.  They are suddenly back in my life.  We have reconnected.  Let’s face it; letter writing is a lost art.  I wouldn’t get a note or phone call from them. But they’re there.  On Facebook.  Photos of their kids and their dogs.  Snippets of their lives.

I am in contact with people from Kindergarten, high school, and  graduate school.  There are people from my work life - from teaching at Nora Springs to the research office at SIUE, the Kirkwood Area Chamber of Commerce and the Walker-Scottish Rite Clinic.  There are friends that I made through my children and husband, through choir, through the theatre.

Facebook creates a connection I wouldn’t have otherwise.  I am not good about picking up the telephone.  My family isn’t either.  Except my mother.  She is the great exception to the rule.  The phone rings at her house constantly.  She is the hub of all information; she is the center of the grapevine.  It used to be that I only knew as much as mother knew or mother remembered to tell me (Remembered is the operative word, as I can’t count the number of times my mother said to me, “Didn’t I tell you that?”).  Not any longer.  Because of Facebook, I can even beat her to a scoop on occasion

Living so far from family, whether it’s 350 miles or 1,000 miles, I often felt “out of touch.”  No more.

I will admit that it’s possible to be exposed to too much information, but I’ve quickly learned what to scan, what to block, and what to ignore.

I recently celebrated a birthday.  I was showered with warm wishes – via Facebook.  It was incredible.  People who wouldn’t know when my birthday was, let alone send a card, took a few moments to wish me well.  My heart was warmed.  That is when Facebook really shines.  Besides wishes, Ana who was a foreign exchange student from El Salvador during my senior year of high school sent me a virtual cake  Steve, who I know from my theatre life B.C. (before children), sent me a virtual birthday squirrel.  And John, who I’ve known since our sons were in Kindergarten together, sent me videos of Elvis and a pig singing (not together) “Happy Birthday.”  Each of these people walked through my life at different times and different places, but continue to touch my days through Facebook.

When people say they don’t like Facebook or they don’t trust it, I have to shrug and smile.  I got to see photos of my cousin’s children this morning and catch up with friends in St. Louis via Facebook.  It made me smile and that’s all that really matters.