Has my life changed due to Facebook? Has yours?
I looked at my Facebook page this morning and saw this video informing me that I joined 10 years ago.
I am asking the questions has my life changed due to Facebook? Has yours?
If you remember back, there was myspace, hi5, Bebo and no doubt numerous other social media sites that could be today’s Facebook. For people in the UK & Ireland, we will all remember Friends Reunited. How excited we got as we rediscovered people we went to school with who we hadn’t been in contact with for 20 or 30 years.
Facebook clearly offers something different as it has survived and become the leader. I can still recall the person who sent me the link 10 years ago to sign up and how excited I was when I had 30 friends.
Over the years Facebook has done things that I could not have contemplated 11 years ago. I have often described it as ‘Heaven before its time’. The reason, people who I thought I would never see again suddenly were back in my life. I found many people with who I had lost contact. The more difficult bits were when people from the past would appear and I would think, “What do I do now, accept them as a friend or ignore?”
I introduced a rule for my usage, ‘ I would not accept a friendship until I messaged the person and received a reply.’ I based this on the belief that it was not good enough just to request and accept friendship, something of a conversation had to happen before becoming Facebook friends.
On one occasion I made several phone calls while I was messaging someone to make sure I knew who they were. Some of us change so much that we would pass each other on the street though a photo from 30 years ago or ‘he’s such and such son who married such and such’ helps prompt long lost memories.
Another good reason to check is often people hit a request button without knowing it. When you check back they reply saying they have no idea who you are and apologise. Somehow I ended up with someone I have never met, so I must have hit the button and they accepted. We have though conversed a few times and we remain FB friends.
I also thought I had found an old Uni friend only to discover it was the same name but not the same person and yes although we got it wrong we became FB friends.
Facebook provided a means to celebrate a friend’s life who lived in New Zealand while her funeral took place. It also was the conduit for a number of school reunions that without FB may not have happened.
Perhaps the greatest purpose FB has served me is making peace with people with whom I had not left on so good terms. Pretty spectacular that in my lifetime FB would appear and provide a means of redemption, forgiveness and reconciliation.
Yes, Facebook you changed my life and I am grateful for all the good things that have come from your invention.
I can’t end this without thinking about Medium which is changing my life. I certainly hope in 10 years I am saying thank you to Medium even while I am daily grateful.
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