How Facebook Saved My Life...

Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration...but not by much...perhaps it should read "how Facebook saved the quality of my life"... Like many people, especially stay-at-home moms, I had been feeling quite alone although I live in a large suburban area and on the face of it my life looks quite busy. I'm very involved in the community but with 2 young kids in tow, there's rarely time to have a meaningful conversation. Plus, as anyone with kids knows, discussing issues related to parenting is like trying to negotiate a minefield. Although everyone supposedly agrees that parenting is a personal thing, everyone feels very strongly about their way of doing things...and i had been feeling pretty poorly about my parenting skills for quite some time. I'm a people person, and lately I'd been feeling a bit deprived of quality people time.

So, I finally joined the Facebook community and, like most people, was shocked and awed to find so many old friends who I had always wondered about...each day brought someone new to my "suggested friends" list...wow! Even now, several months later, people are still crawling out of the Facebook woodwork...

At first I was a little reluctant to make friends with my local aquaintances...I didn't want them to feel like they were getting "too much information" or more information in order to judge me with...

Turns out the opposite has happened...and in actuality, most people are struggling with the same things I am! They're just better at hiding it or more likely we just hadn't had the time to compare notes...Now, in the space of a few minutes a day, I can compare notes and keep tabs on hundreds of people I have cared about during the course of my life...so amazing.

Besides the obvious benefit of finding old friends and keeping up with all friends near and far, I have been also keeping up with what's going on in the world because of my Facebook connection...that's another thing that's hard to do with kids underfoot...I usually have no clue what the weather will be, forget what's happening in the world. Now, when I check in with what's been happening with my friends, I find lots of links to interesting articles and videos I never would've seen...Most of these stories make me feel like I'm not the only one who feels the way I do. Bonus!

A couple other areas which have improved due to my Facebook relationships: exposure to more contemporary music...for the past 8 years, I have allowed kids' music to dominate my world...so while i'm up on all the hip songsters for the preschool set, i have no idea what's been going on out in the "grown up" music world... another thing that has been shelved lately is any kind of exercise. Although I'm starting to do more walking and need to get more active, I'm no longer feeling the need to hire a personal trainer... my active Facebook friends are the best motivators and it doesn't cost me anything!

Well, this is a bit long for a blog post...and the 2 year old needs a diaper change and is crying for his lost police car, so it's time to go for now... although i haven't finished with this topic yet....Thanks for reading!