Why I love social media

Last year, I caught the social media bug and haven’t looked back. It started at work when we held a Social Media Olympics. The agency was divided into teams and we had to accomplish certain tasks in the social media context to develop our skills as PR professionals– develop a blog, get on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.. any of those areas, put more Search Engine Optimization into clients’ press releases. The list goes on. It was mainly for work. I can’t learn something just by listening. I need to do it, get it wrong, do it again and maybe get it right the next time.

I am more active on Twitter and have recently joined Facebook. I truly enjoy both. First, I love people. I love learning about people, getting to know them and making friends. Everyone has something to offer. And I enjoy sharing. Facebook has allowed me to connect with friends from college and camp. It is also a great way to stay connected with friends and family. Not sure about you, but there aren’t enough hours in the day or days in the month to get together and stay in touch with everyone. With Facebook, you can comment on something, and your “peeps” will get it and possibly respond.

At one time, we thought email was taking the personal out of communication. Then we realized we couldn’t live without it for work or our personal lives. Facebook is the same thing. It doesn’t take the personal out of relationship, but rather it fosters relationships and even helps build new ones.

My point? If you’re not on Facebook or Twitter or any of the social media platforms because you don’t think you have the time, think again. Let’s face it, people are nosey. We want to know what everyone else is thinking. If we didn’t, all of media would evaporate. Social media might even help us weed out what’s out there. Even Sam ended up liking green eggs and ham.

I Gotta Kick the Habit

It takes a tragedy to open up someone’s eyes. Let’s take… cell phones and texting while driving. Estimates of the number of U.S. traffic deaths caused by cell phone talking while driving are generally in the 2,000 - 3,000 range with one hundred times as many injuries. Now, add in texting. You get the picture.

I admit it. I will use my cell in the car. I have also texted on my Blackberry And anyone who denies he/she does that is lying. Abigail always yells at me for doing that. She’s right.

Which is more valuable, your family’s safety or that one more email to the friend or client? I’ll take the family any day of the week.

This isn’t going to be easy but I am going to vow not to text during car rides. I cannot promise I won’t use the cell phone, but I will try to use it less. Maybe only receive a call.

I think I know what it means to have a habit. I need to kick the habit before it’s too late.

Are hospitals ready for the IT onslaught?

Last night I was in the ER with my folks. My father, 86 years young, was having some shortness of breath. Since he had two angioplasties, he is extra cautious these days when something "doesn't feel quite right," as he puts it. There have been enough times when he was right so no need to take chances now.

While waiting for the test results, we ran out of chit chat about the Patriots (ugh), tennis, my children/their grandchildren (their favorite topic). We were into hour two, and I was bored. I happened to notice a computer in the room. Just for kicks, I clicked on the MSFT Explorer browser. The machine was completely open and I logged onto my Facebook page to show them what that was all about. Bad Davida. But am I the only bad one here?

The nurse came in and told me I should get off the machine. It was hospital property. She was right on that. She also said that there was sensitive information in the system. She was also right on that. I apologized, logged off and took my hand slap. I decided not to bother a busy ER nurse, who was treating my father, with a lecture on HIPAA security and how the hospital should add a layer of password protection for the machines in any of the rooms. I did see that the MedHost application was on the machine.It is great that the hospitals have computers. But have you ever seen a doctor or nurse use one of those machines in an ER room?

I have had my fair share of ER visits between kids and my parents, and not once have I seen a medical professional use a machine in the room vs. near a nurses' station or a private office.Information technology is all well and good, and it will probably be the key to moving healthcare into the black, but healthcare organizations must use IT wisely. And if IT will take an even greater role in healthcare, regulations, such as HIPAA, must be better enforced. Are hospitals ready for IT?

The Pursuit of Happiness

Earlier this month, I read and heard about a study about happiness. For me, if it has to do with happiness… humor… anything of that ilk, I want to know about it.

The article quoted Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a coauthor of the study and a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School, as saying, "Your happiness is not just about your own choices and actions and behaviors and thoughts. "It's like there are emotional stampedes that ripple across this infinite fabric of humanity."

I would like to turn your attention to one part: Some findings seem made for a sitcom about family life. While a cheerful next-door neighbor increases one's likelihood of happiness by 34 percent, a happy spouse who lives in the same house contributes just 8 percent. The authors said happiness seemed to spread more through same-sex relationships, and suggested that might help explain the neighbor effect.

That 8% is troubling. Do spouses and family members feel they don’t have to be cheerful with one another? Are we of the mind that the people we live with must love us? Richer or poorer. In sickness and health. Happy or grumpy?

Maybe so, but it wouldn’t hurt to put on a happy face at home and be the one to cheer your spouse, son, daughter, mother, father or whomever you live with. That person shouldn’t feel he or she must go next door or down the street for kindness and support all of the time. Granted, we all need to vent. We aren’t always in the best mood. When one person is down in the dumps, another could help pick up the pieces. And we all reveal things to a good friend about a spat or problem at home to try and get an objective opinion about a solution. But I don’t think that should be the main source of one’s happiness.

My point? This might fall into the category of why we should eat at least one meal as a family to talk, share the day’s highs and lows, and try to understand what’s happening in one another’s lives. Good communication is the key to any relationship. Have you asked your spouse or children lately, ‘How are you?’ or ‘What did you do today?’ and really meant it? If not, try it. See what happens.

It’s never too late

Have you ever dug so deeply into a situation, that you feel you could not find the entrance or exit? For reasons which I will not get into here, I hadn’t seen much of my father’s side of the family since my son’s bris in 2001. I kept in touch with a few cousins, and after a while, it became more and more difficult to find the right words, the right time, the right anything to connect again with others.

To be fair to myself, I didn’t want to at first. I was angry. I was torn. But would I be disloyal to him if I were to even speak to these people? Then, I realized, “What the heck am I doing?” Whatever beef my father has with his family is his issue, not mine. One of my cousins, Leanne, is good at putting that kind of situation into perspective. She has this innate ability to see into people’s minds and say just the right thing.

I shattered the silence last Christmas, when I invited one cousin, Lori, and her husband and three beautiful daughters, for the traditional Chinese food meal. I did see a few other cousins over the year, but there were still a few I still needed to catch up with.

This past Rosh Hashana, I went to Leanne’s house and saw a few more relatives on the “wanted” list, and it was as if a load was lifted from my shoulders. People were happy to see me and my family, and it seemed that we picked up where we left off. It’s not easy to fill a seven-year void, but we did our best.

Then, the other day, we got an invitation to celebrate an early Chanukah at Lori’s house with family from our side (my father’s sister) and her father’s side, as well as some of her husband’s. We had plans that evening but made it a point to go there even for an hour. I walked toward the house with some anxiety, but that quickly passed. We had a great time catching up. My husband and children met cousins they didn’t know existed. I did too. I left so relieved. Tomorrow, I will invite relatives for that traditional Christmas dinner of Chinese food.

My point? We all have regrets. We have all said, “If I could turn back time…” Although we cannot recreate lost years, we can try to begin anew. You can sit and think about it, or you can do something about it. It’s not easy. It won’t happen overnight. You might even swallow some pride. It’s your life. You can choose to live it.. or just think about it.

If at first you don't succeed, try again

I finally did it. I finally made it to Nationals. I have been playing league tennis with the United States Tennis Association for the past 12 years. My team has made it to Districts and Sectionals. But it always stopped there. This past season, I merged my team from Natick with the one from Weymouth, and we created quite a group of fantastic players. But more importantly, they are a group of fantastic people. We got along well. We enjoyed being together. We played on and off the court. Everyone dug deep and did what they needed to do, when they needed to do it.

It is a long road to Nationals. First, we needed to win our division. Then, we played the Districts and Sectionals -- two grueling tournaments where stomachs do somersaults because it means so much to you.

My top singles player wasn’t able to compete at Sectionals in August, so we were on a mission. We wanted to win for Jessica. Fast forward to the final match at Sectionals. We were tired after having played for two days straight in brutal heat, but we were more hungry for the win. One doubles team came off the court victorious. Another doubles team won.

By then, I was in tears with excitement. My head was swimming, but I had to concentrate on my own battle. My other singles player lost. One other doubles team lost. I was the final match. Admittedly, due to the overall win-loss record for all of the teams, we needed one of the matches to win. But we wanted to win the cup outright and take 3 of the 5 individual matches. I lost the first set and took the second. It was up to a 10-point tie breaker. I found the edge. I hit the ball over the net one more time than she did. I won the 3rd point. I was finally going to Nationals.

My point? Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about the game of tennis and about competing in tennis. I had a goal. I knew how to get there. Maybe it took time, but I did it. The quality of one's life is not dependent on external situations. Every life situation is an opportunity for growth. Try to learn something from each experience and then to do it better the next time.

Thank you, Justine, for a Great Decade

At the ripe young age of 26, Justine Henin retired from professional tennis. Everyone has some kind of opinion about this. Was it the right thing to do? What will it do for tennis? But the bottom line is that she felt it was her time to spend time on other things she likes to do. She wants to put more energy into her academy. Maybe she will get married again and have a family of her own. She might have been one of the most focused and driven players on the circuit. The energy she put into her training day in and day out would make any of us faint. She will move on to other projects with the same intensity and passion.

My point? I think we can all learn from such a strong willed and excellent athlete. When I watched her, I felt like I was playing every point with her. And by the way, she’s one of the few players who still has a one-handed backhand.