![Communicate [your] Skills](http://communicateskills.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/header450x60px.png "Communicate [your] Skills")
Loneliness is a Place on Earth or How Social Media Saved My Life
I’m pretty sure we all have our own social media stories, whether they are life changing or not. Do read mine and feel free to share your own. I’d love to hear it!
Loneliness is a Place on Earth
I grow up in a medium sized city in the middle of Sweden. Everything was average. (We have a swedish word for that: lagom, which means being mainstream, good enough, not standing out in any way). In this medium sized town, it was very important to do what everyone else thought was lagom. Dress the same (lagom trendy), think the same (very much lagom), be the same (very important to be lagom).
I didn’t like it. And I was very lonely.
The town itself was lonely. If you went out on a Sunday afternoon you could walk through the entire city without seeing anyone. The shops were closed and no-one was out. If you felt like having a coffee on a Wednesday morning, you had to find someone to join you on the café, otherwise you exposed to the whole city that you hadn’t got any friends. And if you had your coffee in the same café more than twice a week, someone would probably call the police accusing you of stalking the café staff. There was a rule that could not be breached: be lagom.
Saved by Social Media
I don’t remember exactly which year it was. Probably around 1996 or 1997. I do remember that previously that year, I had met a guy who gave me his email address and we started to exchange emails, like pen pals. He was the first person I ever emailed, and I was so excited getting messages in the computer that I almost fell in love with this person (or rather his emails). He was my first cyber love in a row of… well, two, (though he never knew about it).
Back to what I was supposed to tell. (I kind of lost the thread a bit talking about love). That year (-96 or -97) the Internet was still very un-developed. Web pages was just pages with text on them and they took forever to load. I don’t remember who, but someone told me there was something out there called “chats” were you could write to someone also online and get an instant reply. One night I tried it. And I was amazed. It transformed my life, changed it and saved my sanity. I wasn’t alone anymore, I wasn’t locked into this lonely town. There were always people out there to hang out with whenever I wanted. I will never forget that day when it became clear to me: This was the end of loneliness.
I was saved. Finally.
How has Social Media changed your life? Please do tell in the comment box below. I really want to hear your story!
About the author
Anna Rydne is a communications specialist, a mother and a small business owner. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, she's determined to uncover the secrets of how successful people and companies communicate. Anna has a special interest in social media marketing and personal branding and she believes the road to success is trying. She tweets about all things comms, social media and marketing @CoSkills and writes for SteamFeed.com twice a month. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology. Contact her at anna@communicateskills.com.
Good post Anna, very interspective. That age thing, if you are a Dino, that makes me a Grand Dino. Bra läsa!
Du talar bra svenska, din gamla dinosaur!
(That’s a new sentence to run through the Google translator!) Thanks for commenting and for the encouragement!
You ask great questions. Hardly anything is as satisfying as answering a really juicy self disclosing question. You have this down. : )
Social media allows me to blog. My whole life, this it what I wanted, without knowing what it would be. Blog, read, connect, post comments, get feed back. this is a fun game. Better than Runescape. Runscape rescued my sanity, by nurturing my lost child, and opening me up to being myself, by just playing. I learned to gamify. It was a great socials skill builder.
WordPress is even better.
Twitter helps me think.
Thank you Susan for sharing! Social Media is a wonderful thing!
: )
I was officially introduced to the World Wide Web in 1996 as a Freshman in college. I was amazed by chat rooms and the possibility that the person on the other end of that connection could be on the other side of the world.
The funny thing was, 9 times out of 10, I’d have a great chat going on with someone only to discover they were in the same computer lab as me. We’ve come a long way.
Enjoyed the peek into your story, Anna.
Thank you Chad! That’s hilarious!
I love this media age. I remember when I was young and my brother was interested in computers (this was in the 60s) and he had a huge machine in his room with big tapes going around on it. I thought at the time it was a fun thing, but never imagined something like that would lead us to where we are today. He is now a programmer and travels the world (he was known as a nerd at school).
We can blog and we can publish and it’s instantaneous! I love it
It’s worth being a nerd when it’s finally turns you into a shining star! Thank you for sharing this story!
[...] People Care is one of the articles I wrote and as an example I shared my own personal story about how social media saved my life (or actually my [...]
Nice story on loneliness and social media. And I am just glad that social media didn’t exist during Bergman’s filmmaking era.
That would have been something!
Thanks for commenting!