Facebook was originally created by Mark Zuckerberg as a way to keep in touch with his college friends, obviously it has expanded to more than that. This past year I have been able to use it for both the social media aspect of life as well as the personal aspect Mark originally created it for.
My family has been through a lot in the last year. We lost my grandfather and a cousin within 3 months of each other and we’re dealing with it from multiple different states. A family whose really kept together through email on and off over the years, we found another way of bringing it even closer, Facebook.
All of us cousins and I vary in age and from time to time have always gotten back together, had a good time, and gone on our way. After everything our family went through this past year, we turned to each other using the social network, Facebook, to keep in touch and encourage each other through various times. One of my cousins (technically a third cousin) and I really kept in touch and it became at least a weekly, if not daily, communication tool for us. We are 5 years apart in age and growing up only saw each other on a few occasions despite being from the same hometown.
Over the last 10 months we’ve mainly communicated through Facebook, but we realized we hadn’t seen each other in three years, since her wedding. I finally decided it was time to travel down south getting to know her, her husband, and her 18 month old boy. Running around, singing multiple different Elmo songs, and playing in firetrucks, I had a chance to get to know a part of my family I barely would have known without the chance we had to re-connect on Facebook.
While Facebook is an amazing tool for businesses, playing games, and posting pictures… The best thing it gave me was a chance to go back to it’s roots, connecting with family and friends.