connecting hearts… cyber-style

story by | kathleen wrigley

Raise your hand if you remember what a CB radio is? Walkie Talkie? Oh dear. Modes of communication have evolved.

To my husband’s dismay, social media is all the rage. Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. Zip. Zero. Zilch. He doesn’t subscribe...yet. I keep telling him, “It’s here to stay, so get your tweet on.” I think he thinks I’m asking him out on a date.

Drew’s trepidations about social media are valid. An entire generation is being raised on this type of communication. The hours of face-to-face contact with humans decline as the use of social networking increases. Some suggest that it’s addictive and may very well cause isolation and depression. Many young users are unaware or simply don’t care that the information they post is public and permanent. Inappropriate and embarrassing photos or posts leave them prey to all sorts of predators, even lost job or educational opportunities. There are security risks and invasions of privacy when we open our lives to the cyber-world. The list of concerns is lengthy.

I accept the risks, but proceed and post with great caution. I have a very active Facebook account and dispatch a mother-load [pun-intended] of posts about our family. I’m riveted by how small our world has become. I have family and friends scattered all over the east coast, mostly in Philadelphia. Life gets busy and we lose touch. I have cousins and friends who wouldn’t know our kids without Facebook. I have never felt so connected to them as I do now because of these advances. We are [easily] able to mingle with a slew of people through a single post. Without resources—like Facebook—some of my relationships would inevitably become stale or lost. I’m fascinated by this evolution.

Still Drew is less-enthralled. He posted his thoughts about social networking last year in our family’s

Christmas letter. These epistles are widely known for their light-hearted tales of our missteps, adventures, and developments. There was an entire paragraph devoted to Facebook. In it, he wrote:

“As for Kathleen…is it too late to uninvent Facebook? I’m not even sure this letter is necessary now that she posts constant updates on-line. Though I am not on Facebook—and therefore have no “friends” and have never been “liked”—I manage to get updates from 3,000 people who peer into our home via Kathleen’s missives. Hey without Facebook, how would anyone know that Patrick held a repairman at bay on the doorstep, point of Nerf cross-bow, while the girls ran downstairs to get mom and “confirm” that this “intruder” was legit? Don’t even get me started. And please LIKE this comment if you think a zone of privacy seems in order!”

He was right. That story had been told on Facebook. Well I can’t help that he missed the boat…or post.

I give my husband credit; he’s very private but is gracious [and hides his shock] when overly familiar questions are asked, such as “So, how was your birthday? Did you enjoy the free dessert? It looked delish.”

I had to laugh [out loud] when he called me [exacerbated] last year after a “friend” posted a message on my Facebook page. It read, “Just saw the Lieutenant Governor in the Capitol. Want me to give him a high-five for you?” The message went viral. Facebook “friends” from all over read, shared, commented and re-posted, requesting that high-fives be sent from them, as well. Drew was high-fived throughout the halls of the Capitol and even in the Senate Chambers that day. He asked me not to do that again. I won’t.

Jokes aside, we agree that Facebook is a powerful tool. For all its downsides, there are many benefits. We witnessed the magnitude of its value just recently, Our community learned about two families in crisis.

Jordan Peterson is our 10-year-old buddy. Jordan has Cystic Fibrosis and is waiting for a double lung transplant. He and his family temporarily relocated to Texas, where they await his transplant. Then there’s 5-month-old

Jace Jo Pederson and his young daddy, Trent. They have a heroic battle ahead of them. Trent’s wife, Tami, died suddenly [in June] of a massive brain aneurysm. She was pregnant with Jace. Doctors delivered Jace and saved