Connections

This post is dedicated to my father, who is less than comfortable with the online connectedness of today's society.

I can understand this reticence intellectually, although I do not grok it personally. There's a lot out there, and much of it is Not Good. From random folks oversharing <raises hand guiltily>, to who-the-heck-knows-what-tweets'll-come-out-of-the-White-House-today, to Creepy Stalkers, the Internet can be a scary place.

But there were two incidents yesterday that really made me happy to be part of the online community.

There are a few people on LinkedIn (one of whom I know better on Facebook) who have been so helpful to me in the swamp of despair and rejection known as Job Hunting. Although I have not found what the UI people call "suitable employment" yet, these three ladies have been especially encouraging and inspiring, just by being who they are on LinkedIn. Yesterday I felt I should tell them so, in a public forum, and tagged all three of them.

One of these women is LinkedIn famous. And her mere presence (and she followed me back! How flattering!) caused a lot of hits on this thanks-for-being-you thread. One of the other tagged connections messaged me to thank me for the number of hits on her profile thereby. I did not tag people with the intention of getting hits on my profile, except possibly from the three people I tagged. But the response was amazing; I made fourteen new LinkedIn connections, thousands of hits on the thread, hundreds on my profile, and now my name is out there to so many more people. And that was in the course of one Friday the day before a holiday weekend.

The other great connection went like this. I have a group of online friends who are parents of children Abby's age; most of us have never met in person, but we have known each other for over sixteen years online. One of them has a child who is sadly unwell, and her mom posted a fundraiser request (for hospital expenses) on Facebook. Now as we all know, I have no money, so I shared it with my own (considerable number of) Facebook friends. One of them (whom I have also never met in person) not only shared, he donated.

The neighborhood Facebook page we set up has been useful again this week, as several houses at what we call "down by the front entrance" were without water for a few hours Thursday. I texted the repairs and maintenance guy, he explained the issue, and I shared on the community page.

This, my friends, is what the Internet is for. What it does when it works properly.

And in the offline community, today Lizzy and I had a playdate with a friend I've known on the fringes for a couple years now. This friend is someone I knew to say hi to at school and PTA functions, and her child (in Lizzy's grade) has also been to several classes and camps at Studio East. Lizzy says she's the nicest person in the fourth grade (I'm inclined to believe she is correct), and her mom and I are now friends too, rather than barely nodding acquaintances (who help a girl out when she's dithering over whether to go to Weight Watchers).

Community. Connections. Online or off, it's all important.