The Problem With Social Media is The Social Part

The problem with the bloggosphere, and the twitterspshere - and all the Social Mediaspere is that it's personal.

And the good thing about the bloggosphere, and the twitterspshere - and all the Social Mediaspere is that it's personal.

When you start sharing your life, your dislikes, your favorites, your tags, photos of your events - well, people respond. They identify with you - and you with them.

And then it gets messy. They get hurt. They reach out to you when you're feeling lousy. They confide in you when they are in pain. They collaborate with you on projects, ask you to write chapters for their books, and generally get entangled in your lives. You make real connections that go way past the virtual world.

This week a couple of things happened that drove that home to me. I went to Austin for meetings and came home leaving behind friends to whom I felt a real connection. The kind of connections I hadn't felt in years.

A day later one of them was stricken with an illness we don't yet understand and which has her unable to do anything except rest and try not to be scared to death.

At the same time I was hearing about my friend in Texas  I was opening a box from another online friend from California. She'd packed an elegant lunch-pail for my convalescence.

And there's just no way to show you this except to show you a video of me and the lunchbox in real life. because like it or not, our online friends are our real life friends. We care about them, and cherish them. It's the power and the reality of social media.          (photos above courtesy of Kim Haynes).

Comments

[Face-Natural.com]

I'm so jealous. It's simply beautiful.

[Carol]

That is such a wonderful gift to receive. And I hope your friend in TX is able to discover what is going on with her soon. I have been there, done that, with my fibro and it is so scary and lonely. Looks like you had some "furry" help opening the box there. :) Meow!

[GeekMommy]

I believe you're supposed to put good Irish Whiskey in the water gun for emergencies! ;)

That's just lovely!!!

((hug))