Monday, July 27, 2009

In which I sing the praises of social networking sites

You might remember me ruminating on the use of a certain social-networking site not long ago in this space. But as you'll see, I don't think all of those type sites are for, as I referred to them, narcissistic blowhards.
I set up a MySpace account not long ago, and I've had a Facebook account for close to 4 years now. Well, late last week on Facebook I reconnected with an old teacher whose act of kindness when I was in about the third grade stuck with me all through the years. I was in the first few days at a new school, alone and quite bashful. I remember she was watching me those days, and she eventually called me over, asked me my name, introduced herself and talked to me. I don't remember what all was said (remember now, this was a good 20-plus years ago), but that stuck with me. I remembered she left the school not long after that, and I remember I hated that because she was so nice to me. Every so often between then and now I'd wonder whatever became of her. When I saw her picture on Facebook I thought, "I'd recognize that face anywhere." So I contacted her and wonder of wonders, she did remember me, and those days at the new school. I thought that was amazing.
And just yesterday, on MySpace, I reconnected with an old friend from the hometown that I hadn't spoken with in almost three years, and hadn't seen for longer than that. She actually said she still spoke of me often and wondered whatever became of me. It made me feel really good to know that, especially with all the crap that's been going on here in the last few months. I needed it. So yeah, those social networking sites do have a use...though I still don't get Twitter, with its obvious limitations.