I am safe and dry here in my house north of Nashville and feel far, far away from the destruction of the recent Nashville (and other parts of Tennessee) floods.
There was a lunch meeting that I needed to attend yesterday that normally would have been a 35-40 minute drive. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get there. Traffic was diverted off a major highway onto a secondary road that was not prepared to handle the traffic. Once I figured out how to cut through the back of a shopping complex (and shaving off probably 15 more minutes), I was on my way. Once I get almost to my destination, traffic backs up because the normal four-lane road had been cut to two. I was already stressing about how I was going to get home.
My lunch meeting was over in an hour and it took me another hour to get home as I decided to take my chances on road closures and head cross-country to find my way. It was new territory but all worked out okay. I'm just not planning to venture out again for a couple of days.
But, I digress.
During the lunch with my social media-challenged colleague she posed the following question: "Why do people on Facebook and Twitter think they have to tell everything they know about Nashville and the flood damage?"
I could only answer on how it made me feel to post on Sunday afternoon and Monday as I watched television reports in horror as pieces of Nashville history floated away on the Cumberland River.
It was cathartic to do so. I felt isolated, cut off from my network of friends and family. Lots of people were without power but they still had cell phone service to get updates. I wanted them to feel like I did. I wanted them to know what was going on outside of their own neighborhoods.
So, why DO you feel compelled to tell everything to everyone?
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