SOCIAL MEDIA

What happens when your past meets your present? When recollected memories between two or more people differ so dissonantly? People come into our lives and leave a lasting imprint, whether we realize it at the time or not. Those among us who have been gifted with the ability for introspection and have a high emotional intelligence or sensitivity realize over time just how these human interactions interplay with who we later become.

Social Media tools give us the opportunity to reach out and touch someone from the past. Many of us would be loathe to pick up our land-lines or even our mobiles to call a long-lost love or friend or classmate out of the blue after discovering their number on Google. There would be intimate stress involved in making that contact. Would the person on the other end remember us? Would they even want to speak with us or would they slam down the phone in shock and/or disgust? This is where those dissonant memories come in. Yours may be shaded in the pastels of time, while the receiver of your call may be remembering in present shades of fiery red.

As humans, we naturally fear rejection and the act of reaching out is a risk that some refuse to take. Social Media tools give us the opportunity to reduce risk and rejection. A good researcher can use MySpace, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook or any other social networking site along with Google to discover where the “missing” person is in their lives and lessen the stress factor of making contact.

Within minutes we can answer the following questions about that certain someone from our past:

• Where they live- including a Google Earth satellite shot of their home-
• Phone listing
• Email listings
• Relationship status-one search site will also give you a list of people who are related to them for free
• Education and Employment history
• Interests

I could go on, but this short list gives a mini-background check that reduces the fear of connection. With knowledge, we feel more secure, more tied to the person. We can then take that step to contact them armed with some facts and figures to help refresh their memory of us.

Social Media also enables us to reach out and touch someone REMOTELY if we so choose. We are given the ability to test the waters by sending a tentative message via email or an actual networking site. Once the message is sent we wait, hoping to hear from said person. If we don’t, nothing is lost, as we never really made a connection. There is no rejection to recover from, in fact we can rationalize that they simply never got the message.

However, if a link has been made and the stress has been lifted, we are left to sort out those discordant memories. How you combine pastel with fiery red to make a new palette is the joy in rediscovery. Social Media tools help you discover, decipher and connect. What happens afterwards is out of cyberspace hands and left for total human interaction.

Here’s hoping that we all can reconnect with those special people who occupied our lives, our minds, and our spirits and walked with us for a short time on this journey called life. To those of you who walked by my side, listened to my words, and loved me with all of your heart- I thank you immensely. You have made me who I am today, and for that I am eternally grateful.

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin