Facebook Crisis Proves Importance of Social Media Support

It was a crisis. A CRISIS.


I clicked on my Facebook tab to check in with friends and my Facebook page was gone. I reloaded, and the page stayed the same. What in the world was going on? I needed proof that my circle of Facebook writing friends were still chained to their computers, churning out information and willing to offer advice and support to their fellow freelance writers.


I have to admit I panicked.


Many freelance writers don't realize how much of their social life they have given up in order to build their freelance careers. Deadlines, and sometimes sheer exhaustion have slowly reduced face to face time with real friends in the real world to practically nothing.


We've slowly replaced our social life with cyber life. Facebook offers a wonderful platform to fill the void. We can use the private messaging system to communicate those thoughts and ideas we don't want to share with the world in a status update. We can use the chat feature for a more detailed communication that need real time responses. We can share links to our work in status updates. The status updates also allow us to see what our friends and colleagues are accomplishing.


Most of us are logged on to both Facebook and Twitter continuously during our working hours. A quick glance at the browser tab alerts us to the number of updates while we've been busy in another browser window or working in another computer application.


I've known for a long time that I depend on social media as I work, but never did I realize that I was emotionally dependent on it.


When I took a break from the article I was struggling with to check in with my Facebook friends and let my jaw muscles have a moment to recover from the stress of grinding my teeth, it was gone....all gone.


No friends, no support, no Facebook.


In denial I reloaded and reloaded. I pulled up a previous Facebook from cache and tried to reload and log in to no avail. I was all alone in the world.


Fellow freelancers, remember the good old days when we actually took the time to make a phone call? Sometimes we'd get voice mail, but that was no problem. We left a message and went back to work as we waited for the person to call us back. I never panicked when no one picked up, did you? In fact, I usually expected my friend to be busy and was always prepared to leave a message on voice mail.


So why did I feel so disoriented when I lost my Facebook?


I clicked the Twitter tab and sent out my SOS to all my Facebook friends. Amazingly, my tweet was able to post to my Facebook account, even though I couldn't access it from my computer. I got a few replies from friends who were on Twitter at the same time, giving me reassurance that no catastrophe had happened and I wasn't the only survivor of a global catastrophe. 


Reassured, I went to my favorite news website and saw that a glitch was causing Facebook problems all over the world. I was finally able to breath.


We justify our time spent on Facebook and Twitter as using social media to promote ourselves and our work, but in truth, a lot of us find it's more than that. We have found friends that we will probably never meet face to face. We have found support from strangers. We have filled the holes in our life that our commitment to our work has left with people who are just like us. We don't meet up for lunch or drinks. But we've grown to depend on each other being available during working hours when we just need a bit of encouragement, or a good laugh.


I'll never feel like I have to make an excuse for being on Facebook again. Thanks for being there, FB friends and Twitter followers.


All written content ©2010 Patrice Campbell unless otherwise noted.