Monday, January 30, 2012

Do I Still Want Facebook in My Life

I have had mixed feelings about Facebook from day one.  Originally I was sucked in because a good friend invited me to see some photos.  Turns out that if I wanted to see the photos then I had to join Facebook.

It was very exciting in the beginning.  Sharing updates, photos, little bits of our lives and then it happened.  Facebook started to dominate my life.  High School buddies started to show up.  So did ex-husbands, their current wives and various children.

It is not that I am not happy to keep up with all these wonderful people, but really, I am finding that I am not really sharing anything with them.  Nothing that really matters to me.

I miss the days of looking in my inbox and finding a chatty email with a photo attached.  Now most of my emails are from companies or blog updates.  It seems that the more connected I am the more disconnected I feel.

I have been using Facebook less and less and am seriously thinking about dropping it all together.  I long for a phone call (I hate the phone), or a chatty email.  It still care, I just am tired of hitting the "like" button.


Friday, January 20, 2012

A Website I Hope I Never Have to Use

CaringBridge.org is a non-profit organization that helps keep family and friends updated about a loved one that is in hospital or hospice.
According to their website you create a personalized patient website.  Let CaringBridge make each health journey easier by providing private, online journals.

The site helps you create a FREE easy-to-create website including a blog.

Recently I used this service. A friend's father was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  They created a website for him and I was able to follow via an updated site about what was happening.  More importantly I was able to communicate with them and offer my support.

For anyone that has had to try and keep a multitude of caring family and friends up-to-date on the daily hospital happenings knows how exhausting this can be.   By the time you get home you just want to lay down.  Now via this wonderful site you can write one update and everyone can read it at their leisure and feel fully informed.

I sure wish we would have known about this service when my Dad had brain surgery.  It would have made my Mom's life easier.

Thank you CaringBridge for your wonderful service.