The Importance of Social Media For Cancer People

I read an interesting article yesterday on how social media did not bring back the Chibok girl - the girl in Nigeria who was kidnapped by Islamic terrorists a couple of years ago and reappeared out of the woods.

After the kidnapping of over 200 girls in 2014, a Nigerian lawyer came up with the #bringbackourgirls. This exploded over social media and all sorts of people tweeted, selfied, blogged, and wrote about it all over the internet. But what exactly did that do to bring them back? Nothing. By doing this, we showed we cared. But we didn't solve the problem.

Social media is about showing you care about things. That's it. You can tweet, blog, facebook, message, instagram, etc your emotions showing how much you care. But, as the article says, if you want to act - donate, walk to work, etc. Do something, don't just show your emotions.

Social media also provides emotional connections with your friends and family. This is another emotional tie. But sharing a picture of your cousin's new baby isn't the same as seeing your cousin's new baby.

For cancer or other types of  patients, social media allows us to show our emotions about dealing with our cancer and share our lives with our friends and family. The only reason I started blogging was to communicate my cancer crap with others (anything to do with cancer is crap). I am not trying to change the world.

I just want to write to vent. Any crappy diagnosis comes with a roller coaster of emotions on the side, or actually swallowing your brain. There are so many ups and downs you can't keep up. I found I needed a way to vent my emotions and get things out there. I also went to message boards and asked questions and got more emotional connections that became friends and people who relate.

I think there are many other cancer people on social media who may have calls to action, requests to follow, or other content in their writings. But they are also sharing their emotions and creating connections.

I am not chasing followers. I frankly do not care how many people read my blog. I do not want to save the world. I do not want to cure cancer. I wouldn't mind if a cure was found but its not going to be on my blog. I just want a way to show my emotions.