Isn’t the internet great?! How did we ever live without it? And cell phones? And smart phone apps? And tablets? Finding my way through my busy days is so much easier with these wonderful conveniences. And, just think: the younger generation doesn’t even know what life was like without today’s technological tools.
Many of my friends are addicted to Facebook and Twitter, and many other social media sites. They are all so connected, always knowing what’s going on, and with whom, and always keeping everyone else informed of their every activity and thought.
Imagine my surprise when I heard one of them bemoaning his loss of privacy these days.
When I say “heard,” I actually mean that. You see, my friend phoned to say, “Thank you for the personalized birthday cards!” We noted how good it was to hear each other’s actual voice again; it had been so long since we had a live talk with one another!
He’s on Facebook and I’m not, so I was unaware of all that had been going on in his life. He, on the other hand, mistakenly went along assuming that everyone was still connected to him because of Facebook.
He told me he’d gotten a few emails from friends who remembered his birthday, although he couldn’t remember who from. But he was so touched by receiving actual, hold-in-his-hand and display-on-his-shelf birthday cards from me, he felt the urge to call and really catch up with a give-and-take conversation. We spent so much phone time laughing; we set a date to meet for dinner and a good long chat.
Just a little reminder that the internet, while great for gathering information, is not the warmest way to share your real life with the humans you truly care about. And, typing LOL to the world is not the same as the contagion of laughing with each other.