Social Networks: Good or bad?

I am not one that follows a lot of people on Facebook, however, from time to time I tend to browse and see what´s going on in the lives of the people that follow me. The reason I do not follow a lot of people is that I have over 800 friends and if I do not select whom I want to follow, I would not see those that are more involved in my life at the moment.

Sunday morning, Easter Sunday to be exact, while I was waiting for my luncheon goodies to bake, I decided to browse a bit to see the upcoming birthdays. I reached the page of a very close friend who lives in another state, whom I hadn´t heard from in a while, and my heart sank.

On her profile page there were messages saying stuff like:… now you can fly…;… there is a party happening in heaven…; …You will be missed. My eyes welled up and I could not believe (I did not want to believe) what I was reading- my friend had passed away.

All of a sudden the light in my room dimmed. Sadness took over and a big hole opened up under my feet. The initial shock is always the worse and when the dust settles you tend to think better. The heart finally lets the mind take over and you start to put pieces together.

So I decided that I would write to one of those people who were leaving condolences messages on the profile page to find out what was going on. My hope was that it was a prank because after all, the messages were being left on the 1^st of April, April Fool´s Day. But then again, who would be so sick as to play this kind of joke on others and laugh about it?

Fortunately, the person I had written to was on line therefore, I got an immediate response. It was true. My friend had passed away on the 1^st of April, but this person didn´t know what the cause of death was because she was out of town at the time and would only find out what had happened the week after.

At that moment I turned off the computer and as I prayed tears rolled down my face. Nonetheless, my stomach told me that we would still need to digest this whole story and it would take some time.

The good thing about Facebook is that if she didn´t have a profile page, I would never have found out that she had passed away. Another good thing is that her friend was online; therefore I was able to get an immediate answer to my doubt. However, I found out about her death in such a cold and distant way. I can´t really decide whether it is good or bad. What do you think?

(Written: April 7, 2015- In honor of the death of Lori Jean Lopategui who passed on April 1^st. A cheerful and kind friend. Rest in peace my dear friend and until we meet again. )
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Lori Jean Lopategui