MediaJoltz

I was thinking about the recent post by Chris Brogan on Human Social Networks and this thought about my birthday came into my mind. Really, my birthday this year was completely different than ANY OTHER birthday EVER. Here is why:My mother moved this summer out to Utah. She did it in the middle of July. My birthday is July 16th. It was on a Monday this past year. Want to know what I was doing on Monday?

Well I got up around 7am and had a bowl of cereal, but out of the portable cartons cereal comes in when all the dishes are packed away. Then I packed. I hauled 10X cans full of sugar, flour and beans from the basement-my mom’s food storage was coming with her. I took all the sheets from the linen closet and wrapped all the fine glasses and plates from the hutch. I helped dismantle beds and furniture.

I worked with the rest of the family until about 7pm that night getting everything ready for the moving truck that was coming the next day. Up the stairs down the stairs, we packed a 3 story house basically in one day.

But you know, it was one of the best birthday’s ever. I have never received so many happy birthday wishes in all of my previous birthdays than I did this past year. All through the day my phone buzzed with an alert that another friend has wished me a good day-and that made all the difference.

The reason for this is because I have a Facebook account. I use this account to keep in touch socially with those who are important to me. You’ll fined close friends from highschool and college on there. I’m connected to family around the nation. I have business friends whom I want to get to know on a personal basis that I’m connected to. And Facebook has this wonderful tool that posts your friend’s upcoming birthdays for that week.

Happy Birthday to Jeff Pulver on Wed!!!

Now, some may argue that none of the people who sent me a note would have even remembered my birthday so it doesn’t really count. My argument for that is, if you’re someone who isn’t good a remembering dates, like myself, then why not use technology to help you solidify relationships. I was important enough for those people to invite me to be their friend. I was important enough for them to see that it was my birthday and DO something about it. None of them HAD to send me a note.

So, while my birthday consisted of backbreaking work, throughout the day I was reminded again and again that I mattered to someone. Thats what social networking is all about. The technology is just the means to find more people to connect with, the human relationship is the end goal.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday, it meant more to me than you probably thought!