For a Breast Cancer Survivor, What About Finding Internet Friends?

Breast cancer equates with free time. No matter what your situation may be, you will have time to recuperate after surgery and during chemo treatments. You may have time during radiation treatments and most likely, you will have time available to you for a decent period of time while you heal. You may at some point be able to return to your previous active lifestyle but there is also a good chance that you may never be able to do a lot of your most physical activities after breast cancer. So what do you do with all of that free time?

“No matter your choice or level of interest in any of these sites, you can always find more than enough to do and enjoy so that you soon find that you are never bored and always have someone with whom to communicate.”Barbara Jacoby

There is a good chance that if you are reading this article, you are active on the Internet. This provides you with the perfect opportunity to become a part of the social media world. There are so many benefits to doing so. Most importantly, you probably do not feel like having company or getting all dressed up to go out to meet friends and catch up on the news. With the Internet, you can stay in touch without having to be disturbed by a ringing phone or doorbell. You can communicate when you feel up to it and there is no pressure to do so if you are not in the mood. If you want to write an email at 4:00 a.m. to share an update with a friend, you can do so without disturbing your friend and read their response whenever you feel like it. And if you do not feel like being active for any period of time, everyone understands that you do not feel up to it and hopefully will respect your silence.

There is another great benefit to the Internet and that is the various social media platforms. More than likely you have already established a Facebook account where you are sharing photos and updates with your family members and friends. You may be searching for other friends from the past or schoolmates. This is a great place to make your home for your most personal and intimate sharing with those to whom you are the closest.

Then there is X (formerly Twitter). What a great place to dash off a quick message!  This is the perfect place to respond when you are not up to writing a full email or other posting but want to let a person know that you are fine and will be in touch. This is also a great place to meet some new friends who, for instance, may already be friends of your friends. You may receive a “tweet” from a friend who is sharing a message with you as well as with other of their friends at the same time. You can respond to just your friend or you may want to respond to all of those included. Soon you may just be tweeting with one or more of these people privately if you choose because you enjoy what that person usually posts. This is how I have met some of my favorite new friends.

Then there is LinkedIn that is a network for professionals but also a great place to find a lot of the latest information about what is going on in your own professional world as well as that of others such as what is going on in the medical world. For instance, on a daily basis, I post daily “In the News” articles here and on the other social media platforms so that those who are in my networks can find some up-to-date information about what is going on in the world of breast cancer. It includes everything from research to the stories of those who are holding fundraisers to raise money for cancer-related support programs in their areas.

Google+ is another platform that may be of interest. This one may be of great interest if you wish to participate in online chats with other people. You can join in either in view of others or by voice only and there are always chats going on that relate to a myriad of topics that are sure to include just about any topic in which you are interested.

No matter your choice or level of interest in any of these sites, you can always find more than enough to do and enjoy so that you soon find that you are never bored and always have someone with whom to communicate. And if you are fortunate as I have been, you, too, will find some great people who will become new, life-long friends.