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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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I have a confession. I am slave to social media, Facebook in particular but also browsing the virtual world. If I had hours of nothing to do in the day, I am positive I could sit and get lost in the World Wide Web. Luckily I am saved by the fact that those kind of lackadaisical, nothing-to-do time spans don’t exist in my world. This bondage to the WWW-is it a blessing or a curse?
In the time that I do get to peruse the virtual lives of my friends, family members and co-workers I get a glimpse of their health, good or bad. If there is a new cause to support, you bet I will find out. There is no excuse for forgetting a birthday, with the Facebook reminders in front of me and the fancy application that I have on my smart phone-yes, I am constantly connected because technology has become so totally portable.
It used to be that my family connected physically, only a couple of times a year, and even though this is still the case, we keep up to date through the highs and lows of life via social networking. I don’t have to wait six months to hear about the antics of my stinking cute cousins. Virtual applause is instantaneous when accomplishments are shared, even when they are from thousands of miles away. It is no matter that my daughter lives a couple of hours from home-this mom can read her statuses, intuition kicks in and I know what I need or can do, or not. Social networking is a powerful tool for my family.
It is heartwarming to watch and feel the strength of streaming prayer chains. To be able to witness a humble prayer request, followed by simple words of condolences, promises; to lift people up-it is good for the soul. Whether I am the receiver or the giver, it has been a gift to see how the web connects us, when it is put to spiritual use.
As with anything, with good comes some bad and I won’t dare finger point because, as always, there are three more pointing right back at me. This virtual world can have a mean side to it, because it is people that feed into it, and we are not perfect. It can be easy to take our freedom of speech and twist it, not even necessarily intended, but the messages can still burn. I am guilty of not biting my tongue, not being able to leave the keys alone or the obvious, just hitting “delete”. Sorry can’t always cut it when it comes to fixing my erroneous ways.
Therefore, while I peruse the vast domain, I stop and read the message, remember the source, and try to pass quickly before I bite back. Pointless are the World Wide Web wars, where not all reference sources are accurate, egos can be enlarged or inflamed and opinions fly everywhere. I have more fun finding out how my friends and family are doing, talking about a few of the causes I support and leaving the debates to the far more seasoned debaters.
Thanks to finding Facebook and other forms of social media, I have enlightened my life and found new things to do and see. It helped pave my way to another novel written, more meals and sweets have been cooked up because of the numerous virtual cookbooks and blogs that exist, and my avenues of entertainment have been deeply widened. There are new friends, old friends, and future ones to be found.
My enslavement to this world of social media has been more of a blessing than a curse-a learning experience in time management and prioritizing my life. I will not be spending hours today scrolling down my Facebook page, instead I will be running my broom over my floors and folding towels on this housecleaning Friday. The moment I do get a free minute to spare, I will be sure to take a peek, lest I miss a moment to encourage, share or pray.
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