365great Day 146: Facebook

laelene Posted in 365great,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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365great challenge day 146: facebookThe social media network that started it all. I remember back in 2004, I was getting ready to start college in the fall and there was this new thing called The Facebook trending. I ignored it at first, figuring it to be some silly fad, but when I got an invitation from a friend of mine who doesn’t do frivolous things, I decided to give it a chance. Before I knew it, I had found (and messaged) a ton of people set to take the same classes as me in fall quarter. Some of them replied and we struck up a friendship in the lonely month before school started when all my other friends had already started at their universities. UCLA is one of the last, if not the last school system to start up. From there, I started finding old friends from many of the other states I’d lived in, including childhood best friends all grown up. I loved Facebook for that, since when I was younger, every move meant losing contact with my entire social network. Back then it was either pay for long distance phone calls or write letters… so of course we did none of that – too expensive and too much effort! Over the years, my use of it has evolved from making sure I didn’t lose track of acquaintances to sharing all kinds of fun pictures. It’s nice that I can check in on friends at my leisure and get an idea of what they’re up to. For keeping us connected without constant effort, I value Facebook and it has always been my favorite social media site. It connected me back to a childhood I’d lost! Isn’t that great?

Need for social connection

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , , , ,
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Working from home is hard. Not only do you have to keep yourself motivated and on track despite all the distractions, you get isolated from people. I mean, sure it’s great to connect with people online, but nothing can truly replace sitting across from someone as you chat over cups of tea or share a delicious meal. That’s one of the reasons I’m rejoining the workforce, in addition to seeking greater learning and growth opportunities.

sitting on ground working on laptop

Just me and the laptop…

These days I find myself getting antsy around 4 PM – I’ve done a lot of my work for the day and I’m seeking a break, but nobody’s around. Sometimes I’ll have a snack but sometimes I kind of forget and just wait until dinnertime to eat. I start looking out the window as neighbors begin arriving home from their day of work and wonder when Panda will be pulling in. He’s pretty much the only person I am consistently in touch with and definitely the only one I spend time with in person. Sure, I’ll call my parents or email/text my friends, but I don’t really know anyone out here so there’s nobody to meet up with. When it’s just me and the laptop, I often wish that I had my cats with me – they’re always entertaining! However, they’d be a distraction so I guess I shouldn’t be playing with them. Instead, why not get the interaction I want by doing work together with others??

I’m really looking forward to getting back into an office so I can make new friends, get to know my coworkers, work towards a common goal of growing the company, and get more interaction overall. Nothing can quite replace being in the same physical environment (unless you have some complex video-chatting stream between all users, then maybe). Plus, it’s good to get out every day and move around. There have been days where I didn’t breathe a single breath of fresh air since I just stayed indoors on my laptop the entire time. It’s easy to start to get disconnected from the world.

Of course, I still love my online life and it’s so cool to be making blogger friends. I definitely plan on continuing with that, but it’s something that can easily be a hobby I do at night and on the weekends. I don’t have to work on it for 40 hours a week (though I certainly could) and I think it’d be a nice complement to the work I would do during the day at a workplace. I’d get a nice mix of interacting with people on the phone, in person, and online. I’m ready for that!

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