Can Social Media Repair London Bridges Falling Down?

"The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired"- John Lafarge

Have you ever looked back on your adolescent years and thought to yourself, "I can't believe I did this?" "I can't believe I said that?" "What was I thinking?" 

Looking back on my childhood, it was pretty much status quo but I wish I treated people differently. I was lucky enough to have friends that stood by me in rough times and also fortunate enough to attend college, graduated, and land my first corporate job with a 2 billion dollar corporation. This was the time in my life that my arrogance took a backseat and I finally accepted the simple fact that I did NOT know everything.  After having this epiphany, I soon became a sponge; learning everything I could and  finally admitting to myself that I was not the center of the universe. Hey mom....looks like you were right after all these years  :)

Trouble seemed to follow me wherever I went ages 13-17. Someone told me to stop for a second and take a step outside myself. Look at the 5 buddies I hung with most. Sad, but the truth is that these 5 people will dictate "your" morals, values, beliefs, and explain your behaviors. Openly, I fell into some not-so-great crowds over the years. I got into trouble here and there(nothing major) but it took moving to a brand new city where I didn't know anyone to really find myself as an individual.  Once I started to realize my potential as a human being and realized that bridges were not meant to be burned...I reflected on the reputation I created for myself over the years and I wanted a second chance. But how?

Luckily, social media has been a very important tool to improving and raising my own brand awareness. I started requesting friendships from individuals that I graduated with. I wanted to learn about the people I never gave a chance and Facebook and LinkedIn enabled me to do so. I researched where they are working, what college they went to, their life experiences, who they are dating, who they are married to, and most importantly, if they are smiling in their pictures.  Since I started this brand building project, I've had Facebook chats with these people that transformed into phone calls/texts, that resulted into catching up over drinks. 

Everyone focuses on social bullying and indeed, it is a huge problem in today's world. But it is normal that the news focuses on the negative side of the story. In order to stay stress free, it is important to focus on the positive side. It gives people another opportunity to right the wrongs in their past. Social media should be for the jock that poured milk all over the science club president who now works for NASA or the cheerleader that never gave the trumpet player a second look after he built up enough courage to ask her to prom. After high school, perceptions of individuals change dramatically. Think about if you ever moved to a city by yourself and you run into a person that you graduated with or migrated from the same town. Don't you agree that the experience is ten times different? Usually, you two become great friends or even date because it's a perceived similarity that binds the relationship together.

Yes, social media can repair the bridges that someone may have burned in the past. And yes, divorce rates may be higher in the future because of the ease of being attracted to temptation. But at the end of the day, social media has given us an opportunity to connect and share content with people that would have been lost inside your yearbook which is now lost in your closet. Social media does much more than telling me what you had for breakfast this morning or what song you are listening to. It gives me a real life point of view through your eyes, not mine. That "my friend" is the value of true friendship. Instead of being obsessed about me, me, me, your friends on Facebook are concerned about the world that you see, through your eyes.