There is so much talk about how the use of social media only makes us feel connected, but we aren’t really connected. That entire statement is odd to me. Isn’t feeling the entire point of being connected?
We're Not Alone
This week alone, I am praying for a woman who is dying, a baby who is fighting to stay alive and a wife who has discovered her perfect husband is sick. These are not people I would have known if it weren’t for my blog. These are not people I have even met more than a handful of times in person. But I care deeply about them and I FEEL every minute of the day, their struggles.
Sometimes I think it’s been a bad idea, opening myself up to all these people, because it makes the pain of life exponential. When the girl from high school lost her father unexpectedly, my heart broke for her because I know what it’s like to lose a parent. And I remember she was a very nice person and no one, nice or not, deserves that pain. But I wondered, would I even know of this event if it weren’t for Facebook? Would I even know of this woman anymore? Sometimes I think maybe I need to ditch Social Media all together and focus only on the problems in my own “real life” world.
But then I remember..
How great it was to share the joy with someone when her book was published or the another, single mom who fell in love and got married or a third when she would report that she was kicking cancer’s ass repeatedly. I care about these people-all of them. I’ll take the sorrow if it means I also get to feel the joy.
I feel for them. They are very much real and we are very much connected. No matter what the world tells me about the ills of social media, I’m never trading in these connections for ones that are “real”.
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Well said as always and I agree 100%.
I agree. Though spending too much time in front of a screen is bad, I have received and I think given more support through social media than is feasible IRL. No, these connections wouldn’t have been made on Facebook, because Facebook connects you to people already in your circle. Sometimes to find someone to who shares the same experience or even gets the same joke, you have to look outside where you went to high school, college or your family. I enjoy “talking” to people in other countries other states, different ages, etc. These connections are not in lieu of real life but I do think they add to it. Great post.