If I had never heard of or started a Facebook page I would still be envying and yearning for those perfect homes featured in magazines (now available online) and not know the convenience or meaning of “following” or “like” a page so I could endlessly salivate over said jealousies.

Thanks to Facebook, other forms of social media and the adventure of blogging, I have met and made some wonderful, caring, beautiful people and friends.  I now get to enjoy the work and creation of so many talented people (crafting, decorating and writing) for hours and hours without ever leaving the comfort of the computer or my home!

However, I feel that social media has become a convenient, very much lame and lazy excuse for “this way is so much quicker and easier”.  How, when did social media become the norm for communication?  It may be easier when planning a social event with several people involved but I love the sound of peoples voices and hearing their reactions to suggestions – not my “voice over” for them.  I miss hearing their laughter and not a LOL, lol, lmao, rotflmao, smh, etc or the how on earth did we ever make it through the communication life without the emoji or gifs. I miss sending or receiving birthday, Mother’s/Father’s Day cards or the occasional unexpected letter in the mail. Now it’s a quick flashing / sparkling something posted on a site. (I do send Christmas cards out in the mail and look so forward to receiving them in the mail)…you get what I’m saying…don’t get me wrong I am guilty of everything that I’m nagging or harping about (even now while writing about how I feel), except for one thing.

I do not nor will I ever feel that it is appropriate to learn of immediate family members emergencies, surgeries, deaths, births, some form of life changing event on social media.  Pick up the phone!  Leave a message if you have to!

I detest learning something of this importance by “hey did you know that your relative is …..” from someone who is reading or has read it on Facebook.  That burns me up.  I’m your daughter, sister, aunt, niece, sister-in-law for crying out loud.  I feel the family deserves the respect and privacy of learning such news first hand.  Then, after the family is personally informed and the urge or need to share such intimate information to the world becomes so unbearable, go ahead put it out there – that’s your prerogative. 

We do have the conveniences of modern technology which can be so very helpful and needed in certain situations but, a phone call, mailed letter or card is priceless, timeless….I never thought I would hear myself saying those words….nor did I ever dream of a keyboard taking the place of a live voice.