Put the SOCIAL back into social network

Today's happy accident is brought to you by...my birthday; And social media. Social networks these days are a funny mix of political posts and food videos.  Maybe they should be renamed "opinion networks."

First, I want to share some definitions that I found for the word "social":
relating to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations:
seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable;
living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than  in isolation:
The last one I really like. People need other people! While many of us feel anti-social at times, we really do need other people to be part of our lives, to at least a small degree.

I had a birthday last week. I'm not ashamed to tell you that I celebrated the completion of my 46th trip around the sun. (sounds kind of impressive, right?) I also share a birthday with my youngest child, a boy. He turned 12.This child of mine does not yet belong to any "opinion networks". He has an email account. He's 12. He doesn't even NEED email but it keeps him in touch with some long distance friends.  Which brings me to my point.  Social networks are supposed to be social!

Because of my said birthday, I was the recipient of many thoughtful birthday wishes. Now, some people don't like to post their birthday on social media, and they don't like receiving the "obligatory" "Happy Birthday" from people that maybe wouldn't ordinarily go out of their way to give a birthday wish. I am not one of those people.  While I don't always give a birthday shout out to someone when I am "reminded", I loved reading the posts from friends who took time out of their day to type out a little birthday wish to me.  It might seem like no big deal, but they really did think about me! They saw that it was my birthday, made a choice to click on my name, continued with that choice and wrote "Happy Birthday, Gina!" or some other variation on that theme.  And it really means a lot! Really. I wanted to reply to each one, so I took some time to do that.  And I wanted each reply to be special too--not a cut and paste job.  And here is when the magic happened.  As I replied, my friends started to reply back. And we were, get this, social! We exchanged niceties and I felt connected to them. Some of these people I have not seen for well over 15 years. It took me a couple of hours to get all of the replies done, but as a new comment would come in I would smile and enjoy a few more minutes with that person. Over the years, social media has been hijacked into political messages, political correctness, business promoting and cat videos. I believe that social media has a great power to bring people together and even to keep them connected, if that power is used for that purpose. Something I learned on accident, because I chose to be social on purpose.

I invite you to take a few minutes today and be social on your social media. Interact with someone. Write them a hello, or wish someone a happy birthday.  It'll bring a smile to you and your network.

Me and the birthday boy trying this selfie thing.