Why I love Facebook

Blogging is great but there is nothing like Facebook in my opinion.  Why?  Because (yes and I know you are never meant to start a sentence with because but bugger it) I get to kept in touch with the most important people in our lives.

Me I don't have 1000 friends on Facebook, but what I have are the top people who have shared my life over many years and those people who are important to me every day, people who have inspired me, people I respect, people who somehow have shared a part of our lives and knowing what they are up to, knowing I am keeping in touch with them and keeping track with their lives is just the most fantastic thing.  I think back to the days, where you had to pen a letter -  boring and hoping and praying you might get one back.

Its great to connect with people you may have not seen forever but there they are on Facebook up front and personal and all of a sudden you share their life like you may have in years gone past.

You see their family, you understand their setbacks, their successes, their new friends without jealousy, but as a joy of all the people who also love them for the wonderful things they are.

Who knows who looks at my blog, but I do know the people who like my blogs from Facebook, I get to share my friends lives in so many ways via Facebook and to me it's underrated as a updating service especially in the older generations.

So lets look at my small but intimate group of Facebook friends by how long I have known these people - of course I will not mention everyone and I apolgise if I did not say your name personally it doesn't mean I don't love you it is just about you can't mention everyone.

Aleta Coroneo aka Aleta Jarrott - we met in January 1974 in High School - who would ever have thought we would become best friends and be some how linked for now over 40 years, that our lives would have been so entwined and that even now we would probably say we are best friends, even though we don't see each other much but we share so much of our lives with each other every day.  Leet I love you mate thank you for you friendship over these 40 years.  As we post old photos recently scanned we share so much and being bridesmaids at each others wedding I thank you for our on going friendship  and the memories that are probably in our hallways/life pics.  Thank you my dearest friend for every thing you have given me over the last 40 years!   

I have a friend who contacted me who is even known to me before Aleta and that is Lisa who lived up the road from me in the 60's early 70's.  Lisa is someone who found me through Facebook , and while we are not friends as such we are people who shared a part of life - here is what I remember of Lisa.  Her and her sister Noeleen lived 2 maybe 3 houses up from me  I remember when they move I was invited to their house at Beenleigh which seemed 100's of miles away at that time, but you know we had some terrific times and my memories of Guy Fax night, bon fires, etc are with me forever - so thank you Lisa for finding me and letting me share your life - something that would not have occurred prior to Facebook  - after all I think I may have 12 the last time Lisa and I shared anything and some 30 years before we did again.

Erica Bolam is someone else who seems to have shared so much of my life from D&B round 2 , ABR and the GlobalX, but more than just being work mates and people who shared a work environment we became friends and again Facebook lets me view Ericas and Karens life as it occurres.

Just a week or so ago some long time friend Terry and Glynnis started on Facebook and we immediately became friends, we have shared so much of our lives together - Glynnis and I first met at play group in early 1993 we both had 2 children and we were doing the appropriate Mummy thing, but from there we became friends and more than that I looked after her and Terrys children as a day care Mum a few years later. We were friends, we became extended family and over many many years shared our families lives and ensured we met up at least every school hols - of course this changed when we moved to the Gold Coast and the kids grew up thank you for letting us be a part of your lives and its great to see you and your lives again.  

That's the thing about Facebook, it doesn't matter if you are truly together - seeing, talking and sharing with those you know and love is connection and its instant.

Kerrie Mills - I only reconnected with Kerrie last year on our 25th wedding anniversary when I went who was at our wedding I am not connected with and Kerrie was in that group. Kerrie and I worked together, went to Hawaii together and had too many fantastic times together, but before Facebook and before just 12 months ago we had lost contact but now we share - again.  Its great to see you and your beautiful family again.

The Bells - a family I have know since I was 8, they were my second family and Elizabeth Bell was also a teacher of mine but the family in itself was my family - I felt Boney Joney was my 2nd Mum and Wayne, Andrew and Darryl were my brothers and some of my best memories of childhood contain this group of people.  Our kids interacted in an environment that was more than family, but Wayne and Derek as piers, Elizabeth and I as teacher - pupil and then piers, and of course Andrew and his boys just mates.  I do think without Facebook I wouldn't have that opportunity to know these people today as we had sort of lost contact as you do over time.

To all my other mates, Dereks other mates, family both long known (Derek and Pam, Stuart, my brother Jim, Gary and Helen and their family and of course our UK and US families of the Todds etc) and others such a Mandi, Shezza,  Favvy, Denny, Gab,  Kirsty, Ken and everyone else we have on Facebook as friends you know who you are and this wasn't about a list of friends or family members, it was about just saying hey you are all special to us in one way or other, and so many more of you thank you it is so wonderful to share your life experiences and be a part of those - I watch you grow as people, I watch you take on life and it is such a wonderful thing. There are also those people such as Maggie who have just inspired me and helped me to grow as an individual and many others. Our friends on Facebook are not 1000's but can be counted in the 30-60's but these are people we love, the people who have influenced our lives, these are the people who have made us who we are today and TO ALL OF YOU WE THANK YOU.  We  thank you for being a part of our lives some form decades, and some for just a short time, but we now get to share a part of your lives on a daily basis and see you, see your family and see what you do, how you do it and understand you better and this is fantastic.  It means when we catch up even after years of not seeing each other, we have heaps to talk about because you have been watching each others lives. Blogging doesn't provide that experience, neither does LinkedIn or a lot of other Social Media platforms, but Facebook allows us to connect with family and friends, it allows us to communicate when we are 1000's of miles away, it allows us to show what we are doing, it allows us to say how we feel -these are the the reasons why I LOVE FACEBOOK.