Category Archives: Technology

Most of us use Facebook for various reasons, not always alike. Connecting with friends, connecting with causes, connecting with celebrities, connecting with products and services.
However, an interesting thing happened to me recently with my ‘relationship’ with Facebook. I found myself in the Emergency Room of a hospital due to a friend’s medical situation. My time there was not planned. I rushed to be by her side as soon as I heard the news so I was unprepared for the hours and hours and hours that it took the physicians and medical staff to tend to her needs, get her body/health stabilized and ultimately, get her discharged.
Thus I found myself by myself as she slipped in and out of consciousness. I didn’t have a book or a newspaper. I didn’t have the use of a television. In short, I was stuck with nothing to do, no one to talk with and nothing to read.
Enter Facebook – I opened my Facebook account on my iPhone and suddenly a world opened up to me. Stories and posts that I might ordinarily have skipped over since I don’t usually have the luxury of having so much time to dawdle over everyone’s life events.
But on this day, at that moment, not only was I not going insane by simply being idle, I was able to delve and read and revel and shudder and cry at all of the humanity that were on those pages that folks took the time to share.
I know that it might sound trivial, or else you could ordinarily say, “get a life” but this time, at that moment, it was a life saver for me.
I was able to keep my vigil for my friend in her time of need and I was also able to fully relish the lives that others have and cared to share.
So in that instance, I realized what a life saver social media can be. It isn’t just bragging or being voyeuristic, for me it was a life line to the real world and it kept me company in my time of need.
Thank you Facebook and thank you all for sharing! Warmly, Maria