The Healing Power of Social Networking

The Healing Power of Social Networking MSNBC ran an article today entitled  When You Dont Want to Be Friends on Facebook  that I found fascinating. Many commented on the awkwardness of having someone from your junior high or high school days who you havent talked to in decades find you and ask to friend you on Facebook. I have an entirely different take on this and heres why.In January of this year, I started a networking group on Facebook to reconnect with some old friends from high school. Initially, my boomer friends were skeptical and even a little bit nervous about joining, but many did so, perhaps to humor me or maybe just because they were curious or wanted to friend their children to see what they were up to online.What started out as a very modest sized group has grown to the hundreds, thanks to some very tenacious Facebook users and some core friends with a killer email list and super human cybersleuthing capabilities. And while its fascinating to see the numbers in the group grow each day, whats more amazing is the healing power of the group.Lets face ithigh school is not exactly the easiest time in life and the relationships formed there are filled with excitement, passion, disappointment, embarrasment, and defeat.  Yet despite all that, the affinity within the group is quite powerful. The ties you form with your high school peers are tough to match, even if you werent voted best athlete or most likely to succeed.And with those ties comes the power to forgive. Since starting the group, friends have told me about some amazing things that have happened to them online. Two of my friends told me about friendships that blew up in high school or soon after and were never revisited againuntil Facebook. Facebook gave them the courage to say So what was that arguement all about and who cares anymore? Another friend told me he hardly remembers anyone from high school (he cut many classes)yet despite what he initially thought, his wall is full of friends, friends of friends, jokes, videos, old phot os, etc.So if someone from your past reaches out to you on a social or business networking site, dont make your decision to accept the invitation based solely on what the relationship was so many years agoinstead, base your decision on what the relationship could be.