1. People have Facebook themes. Go ahead, scroll through your timeline…you will start to see patterns. For example, mine will go something like cute kid pic, mommy rant dipped in humor, inspirational quote, Netflix, repeat. My husband will go from a picture of grilled meat, to a bottle of beer, to a well-filtered kid or dog pic, maybe a dig about our city, selfie. We become a bit predictable…it’s all good.

2. You Can Say/ Post/ Tweet Whatever You Want. Congratulations! You’ve found the Freedom to Speech impulse button, push it…push it real good. Hopefully you won’t lose your high paid job/friend/spouse/dignity.

3. You Will Get to Know People on a Deeper Level. People can poke fun at ‘Fakebook’ all they want, but when I went to my 20 Year Class Reunion and people told me that ‘they feel like they know me’ because of social media, I took that as a complement. I have enjoyed pictures of children I’ve never met, inspirational quotes, and the pieces of people’s lives that I have admired like sea shells along a beach, collecting a few in my long-term memory bucket.

4. People Love Their Nerium.

5. What You Say on Social Media Can Change Your Relationships. I have talked to many people who no longer associate with other people based on things they have said on social media. Whether it be someone’s view on politics, dramatic relationship posts, or heated inbox discussions, the written word taken out of context (without the 99% non-verbal cues that we need to process it) can mess things up. It goes back to #2 on our list…and literal #2 as a result.

6. You Can Make Strangers Mad. As if irritating people I know isn’t enough, blogging is a great way to make people you’ve never met very pissy and opinionated about that one blog post you wrote 2 years ago on a cold winter Mommy morning. It just makes me want to blog more really to piss off judgmental strangers…pro bono!

7. You Can Make Professional Connections on Social Media. For some this may mean marketing a product or sales, but I’ve also seen people get jobs through Facebook, and though we are not always very professional, I’ve met some fun bloggers through #…Twitter.

8. Learning About the World Around You. Sometimes I’d really not like to know that there is a vehicle fleeing to elude or an armed robbery down the street, but click a link and you can find out what’s going on with crime in the area, but more than that you can get fast information on the latest local, national, and world news. Even if it is heavily laden with subjectivity…it’s news.

9. Meeting Like-Minded People. For every star in the sky there is a star on Twitter, just a little wink saying, “I get you”. I can honestly say the same sentiment goes for my 10 year old, where else but on ‘YouTube’ will you find such a large pool of tech junkies talking about the latest Wii U game or Minecraft hack with such intense enthusiasm?

10. Social Media is a Double Edged Sword. There’s criticism that Facebook exaggerates the fun times and making life far more exciting than it is, Instagram filters out clutter, wrinkles, kids attitudes, and the last argument you had with your spouse, social media is said to be in danger of isolating us, leaving us with stiff necks, and aggravating A.D.D, ….but…on the other hand…social media DOES let us communicate to each other the highlights of our lives, it serves as an anecdotal record of sorts of all the non-sense that makes up a life. Many people recognize my kids and not in a ‘stranger danger’ way, but in a ‘OMG that Maria…or a “I totally relate, my son is just like that too!” way’ …which is cool. We couldn’t possibly spend quality personal time with all of our social media friends if we wanted to…and let’s get real, sometimes pushing a ‘like’, ‘share’, ‘favorite’, or ‘retweet’ button is about all the social interaction any of us can handle at day’