Social Media

Social Media.  A few years ago, there was no such thing.  If you wanted to talk to someone, you picked up a phone.  And the phones had curly cords and a rotary dial.  When I was little, you didn't even get to leave a message...unless a human answered and was willing to write it down.  We used to write letters...now the boys can send mass text messages and communicate with hundreds in less time than it takes me to lick a stamp.  Oh wait, you don't lick stamps anymore.

Some social media facts.....Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.  One out of eight couples married in the US met via social media.  If Facebook were a country, it would be the world's 3rd largest.  YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.  Studies show that Wikipedia is as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.  There are over 200,000,000 blogs. 

Scary, isn't it?  So when the boys came to me and asked for Facebook accounts, I was terrified.  But four accounts (one for each of us) and 1266 friend requests later, I've realized what an amazing tool social media is.  Never in my lifetime did I think that I could sit in the living room, laptop in hand and talk to W while he was away.  Never did I think that H could send a message to my phone letting me know he'd arrived at his destination ..... and that my phone would fit in my pocket. 

It'll never be easy having the boys away from home.  Not for a day, a week, a month or a semester.  But knowing that Facebook, IM, text message and Skype will keep us a little closer makes it just a little easier.