Last night I was reflecting on how many people I saw sharing their struggling feelings with Mother’s Day on social media. I noticed it Sunday morning as I was scrolling through Instagram and saw @iamwellandgood post a graphic about how to celebrate when you’ve lost your mom. I don’t remember ever seeing an organization or influencer group write something like this before and it grabbed my attention.
I lost my mom to cancer 15 years ago shortly after I graduated from college. Some years are worse than others, but for the most part I’ve ended up treating it as any other day and avoid the overly happy and sentimental commercials and social media posts as best as I can.
However, this year I saw a shift I don’t think I’ve seen before or at least hadn’t noticed before: a recognition that this isn’t necessarily the easiest day for everyone. As I continued to scroll, so many posts shared this message, including a sweet one with all the different types of feelings this day brings for those who are moms, those struggling to become a mom, those who have chosen not to and those who have lost their moms. Such different and strong feelings for each of these scenarios.
While I appreciated seeing these posts, it still felt like it didn’t relate to me personally. They were just nice things to see online and acknowledge. That was until I read a colleague’s Facebook post. It was a colleague that I didn’t even know had lost their mom just as I had. I hesitated for a moment deciding whether or not to say something. I don’t have a close relationship with this person and wondered if it would seem fake. Ultimately, I did and I’m glad for it as many others shared experiences and condolences on that same thread. It brought us, if even only for a moment, closer together both personally and professionally.
Last night I found myself thinking about this again and how technology is rapidly changing, yet keeping us connected at the same time. It made me think of how my mom would have loved this way of connecting. She died in 2003 – 2 years before Facebook was invented, 3 years before Twitter , 4 years before iphones and 7 years before Instagram. This world we now live in would have been so amazing to her.
In the early years of the Internet, my mom discovered newsgroups and became addicted. She found groups for every single one of her passions and printed out page after page of ideas and conversations. She loved being able to connect with other people over the Internet and she was such a wiz at it. Instant messenger was another one her favorites. It was how we regularly communicated during college with 4 1/2 hours between us. I can only imagine the things she would have found if she was here now. I’m sure Facebook and Twitter would have been her “go to” apps, letting her equally learn new information and connect with others. I can guarantee she would have been right in the middle of it all.
My mom was definitely an early pioneer to what has now become social media and she would have figured out all of these tools and apps so quickly. She was really good at figuring things out. I think she would have been proud of the way I’ve chosen to share technology through education. Education was something so important to her and she instilled in me a love for learning, exploring, and trying things again and again until it works. All qualities that have helped me in my role in Instructional Technology. So, thanks Mom! You set a great example for me and many others in the early days of what we all knew as a brave new world.
Ms Priester EDU 