Facebook: Keeping in Touch

By Just_Lin

I was very reluctant to get signed up on Facebook and I only did so because of the lure of Farmville and SacBarb's persuasion.  I'm really glad I did, though, as I've been having fun with Farmville and Frontierville.  I decided to sign up under my blog name, however, not my real name because, frankly, I don't want to be in touch with everyone I ever knew and don't want them to find me and then I'd be put in the awkward position of having to "ignore" them. 

Since I am mostly retired from the veterinary clinic, only working a couple of days a month, and my good friend, Lani, is also retired from the same clinic, we both find Facebook to be helpful in keeping in touch and up to date with the activities of our friends from work as well as with the friends we've made in the Nest.  Why just a month or so ago, Lani and I were talking on the phone and wondering why we hadn't seen any activity in several days on Facebook from one of our clinic co-workers.  A day or two after our conversation I read a notice from the co-worker on Facebook that her mother had died over the weekend and that's why she hadn't been online.  I immediately called Lani and left a message on her machine telling her to look at the girl's notice on Facebook.  A while later, Lani called me back after she had checked out Facebook and we discussed how sad it was that the girl's mother died.  I mentioned that I had just seen the co-worker and her mother in the grocery store about a week or so before and, although I knew the mother had health problems, she looked absolutely fine so we were sure her passing was sudden and unexpected.  Lani and I both left comments for the co-worker on Facebook.  I wrote that I was very sorry to hear the news and asked if there was anything I could do to help.  Lani gave her condolences on the passing of her mother.  The following day, there was an additional comment directed at Lani from another co-worker.  The comment was, "Monitor, Lani.  MONITOR."  Lani called me to bring the comment to my attention as she didn't know what the problem was about what she wrote that should have been monitored.  I re-read her condolences and couldn't figure out the problem either.  We discussed it for quite a while and then I realized the error.  Looking again at the original post, I realized that it wasn't the girl's mother who had died, it was her monitor that died!  I shared my revelation with Lani, who replied something to the effect that she didn't know the girl had a monitor but people get very attached to their pets, even lizards (thinking it was a Monitor Lizard that died).  At this point, I'm starting to laugh and saying, I think it was her computer monitor, not a lizard or her mother!  We laughed and laughed about our misunderstanding and we still find it amazing that we both read "mother" instead of "monitor".  It wasn't just us, either.  One of the veterinarians who read it also thought the girl's mother had died.  Ah, you gotta love this new world of ours with all these advanced communications.