John Lee
Don’t you love that social media has changed our ability to foster friendships? I mourn all the great friendships started before everyone had a computer and a facebook account that wasted away because I was too cheap to phone or too lazy to find a stamp and walk to the mailbox.
Like Lila, my amazing roommate from University who married her high school sweetheart, went back to her hometown of Thunder Bay and became an A-1 theatre director and actress. Like TJ, another awesome roommate from early radio days in Sarnia, who became a successful producer and writer in Toronto. And like RosieMary, another flatmate who moved from Montreal to Tremblant—only two hours away—to become a ski bunny and is now a naturopath.
Why didn’t we stay in touch? My part in it was that I suck at letter writing. Actually I suck at letter mailing. ‘Cause I’d often write the letters, but they’d never make it out of my office to the post-office. Then time would go by and I’d be embarrassed for not calling/writing/etc. which made even my crippled communication attempts whither and die. Ergo, Kim’s history of crappy maintenance of long distance friendships.
The Bride Gift, Soul Mate Publishing
Thank Heavens for facebook and Twitter and Viber and email. Because of the convenience they offer, I don’t let that happen anymore. Tomorrow I am re-uniting with my dear friend and fellow writer, Sarah Hegger at the Romance Writers of America conference in San Antonio, Texas. When we shared the same town, we were gym buddies, community meeting partners and became fast friends in our quest to write romance novels and get published. She moved to the other side of the continent a year ago but merci to social media, this is a friend I didn’t lose touch with. In fact, we’ve only gotten tighter. Sarah is published now and as her number one fan, please forgive the blatant promotion of her Amazon chart topping medieval on the side of this blog. (It’s a damn good romance)
In other good news, Lila, and TJ and I are friends on facebook, but so much life has gone by it’s almost inappropriate to try to re-kindle the closeness we once had. Thus, the mourning. The connections I have with them now are bittersweet.
What about you? Does social media help you maintain friendships or do you think it makes relationships superficial? Is it a help or a hindrance?
kimhandysides.wordpress.com 