Social Media? Sad Media!

Several years ago, I remember receiving my very first LinkedIn invitation. I pondered for a little while whether this was junk or some kind of scam. I had never heard of it so far. Now I am collecting the accounts at facebook and Twitter, as well as a similar French network, which is where things broke.

I liked the premise of the Social Media phenomenon: Connecting with coworkers, friends, etc. My network started originally with coworkers, expanding quickly to customers and partners. It helped me find out where people were, geographically as well as company-wise. This is all the more important now that people are RIF'd left and right. It confirms that we live in a small world after all. It is fun to see that people we know from one place know people we know from another place. The groups add also some interactivity. It is not just about linking relationships any more. Cool.

Twitter is different. I got to expand my network in the unknown. Now I am connecting and interacting with a few people I really know and a lot of people that I have never met, that only know me 140 characters at the time (okay, okay, 160 for the bio).

Facebook is a different animal, I kept it limited to people I really know. I have a few customers in there but mostly friends from school or family. I have come to appreciate it better than Twitter that feels like a race for follower for most people with little feedback other than people trying to promote themselves. Don't take me wrong, I have had very rich and pleasant interactions on Twitter. But it is like the Internet: a lot of great stuff but even more junk to sort through.

So far so good, social media has been responding to my expectations. I found more people I met at school (I mean here preschool, elementary or middle -- high and engineering school are people I also found on LinkedIn, to some extent) in a French social media site. No surprise there since I was born and grew up in France. I have been quite happy to find many many friends I had lost for so long. That being said, I question whether we should dig into our past. It brings such sadness sometimes. We are self inflicting great pain that is so unnecessary. In the last 6 months I have learned about the death of people that were important to me back then, that I genuinely loved (the friendship kind of love). One good question is why didn't I stay in touch with those people if they were important to me. Well, life happens. I moved when I was 9, we did not have emails and other goodies like that back then. I did not even have phone numbers since we could simply cross the street to see each other! Anyway, when I weight the pain of knowing that those people died with the excitement of reconnecting with those I grew up with, I question the value of that aspect of social media. To be honest, it's a lie. By hiding behind doors, I can try and avoid facing the fact we all die. I don't mind so much my own death but I suffer just thinking of that of people I love. I blame social media for putting it in our face. Now I am at the crossroad: Should I leave the doors closed or open?