The Benefits of Social Networking Other Than Advertising and Self Promotion

Look around on the internet and you'll see plenty of blurbs and articles about how social networking can be a great advertising and promotional tool. There are, however, other benefits that social networking and having an online presence can bring.

Social networking online makes the world a lot smaller which allows us to create friendships, renew relationships, and open up lines of communications that would never have been possible before. The potential of all that communicating can spice up your day-to-day life, alleviate loneliness, and even bring some long needed closure.

Here are a few anecdotes to show how social networking and being online can benefit your personal life.

Long Lost Twin

When I was but a tween, I went to a sleepaway camp where I met a girl who looked almost exactly like me. We ended up having so many things in common in addition to our appearance that we immediately became close friends.

We kept in touch through letters for several years and even managed a short visit once. Time passed and as our lives became increasingly busier with important things like college, marriage and families, we drifted apart and lost touch.

Since then I had created a couple of blogs, upon one of which I decided to post one of my own original poems and placed my actual name at the bottom of it. Little did I know that using my real name would be the key in opening up a forgotten door.

One day out of the blue, I received an email and immediately recognized the signature. It was my long lost twin! My heart leapt with joy as I replied back right away. Through a series of emails back and forth we exchanged contact information and soon caught up with each other's lives.

It turns out that she found me by doing Googling my real name and found that poem on my blog where I had decided to post my name. She discerned through her knowledge of me, that the author of the poem was also the author of the blog even though the names were different, and therefore decided to send a message to the published email address on the blog. I was so glad she did!

I am happy to say that although our lives are still plenty full, we do contintue to touch base now and then.

Renewed Friendships

You've probably seen plenty of ads for Classmates.com, the site where you can search for classmates from your own school. A co-worker asked for help in signing up for it, which intrigued me enough to create my own account as well.

Lo and behold I ended up finding an old friend that I'd never heard from again after I got married. Through emails and Instant Messaging we caught up and can now talk anytime one of us feels like striking up a conversation. This is very nice since we currently live in different parts of the country.

Good ole Facebook ended up helping me find the brother of an old friend. I lost base with her when we moved several years ago. By the time I got around to calling her cell number, it was no longer hers.

I was pretty sure it was her brother based on the locations he had published in his Facebook profile, so I messaged him asking if he was indeed her brother. He was very nice and not only replied back himself, but also had her reply through a friend's account. Once I identified myself he gave me her email address. We emailed back and forth and eventually exchanged phone numbers.

Although both our lives are rather mundane, it was still nice to hear her voice and know she was doing ok. Plus we can now stay in touch again.

Closure

With Classmates.com you can leave notes on each other's bulletin boards, but you can't send a personal email message unless one of you is a Gold (paid) member. Luckily, HE was. "HE", was one of my past boyfriends who ended our relationship abruptly over the phone and without an explanation.

We lost touch right after that and I never did find out what the breakup was all about. I was quite surprised when he contacted me through Classmates.com. Since he was a paid member I was able to reply back to him and through a series of emails, managed to bring closure to the whole deal and ended on good terms.

We haven't communicated since then but it is still nice to have that loose end tied up.

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All in all, when it comes down to it, social networking will have it's negatives as all things do have a bad side, but a lot of good can come of being online.