In this day and age, we are more apt to strike up a conversation with someone we don’t know personally through social media than we are with the person sitting next to us on the bus or the subway. Australian student Matt Kulesza Wants to rekindle good old fashioned face time with real, live human being. So he is taking the next 3 years to meet and have coffee with each and every one of his 1,000 friends on Facebook.

He calls his goal the “1000+ Coffees” project. He started in September and sees the endeavor as an opportunity to leave the “book” behind while reminding himself to socialize and get to know people ‘IRL’ or in real life.

As of this past Thursday, Kulesza had already met and had coffee with 26 of his “friends.” He is chronicling his meetings on both his Facebook page and on his Tumblr account. He uses photos and summaries of their conversations as well as descriptions of what they were drinking to capture each meeting.

He plans to meet with 5 people each week for the next 3years until he has met all 1,000. He doesn’t see this as a chore but rather as fun. He says he likes having coffee with people.

Each meeting provides insight into his friend. They discuss more than just coffee. Kulesza says no topic is off limits. Politics, pop culture and even tarot cards have been discussed with equal enthusiasm.

Kulesza says it amazes him how at school, everyone sits waiting for the lecturer to arrive and stared mindlessly into their phones. No one speaks to the people around them anymore. His “1000 Coffees” project should serve as a wakeup call to the rest of us that life is about the human touch and the connections we make IRL.

Modern technology has been behind some of the most amazing stories of this century. This one comes from social media site, Instagram.

Nia Edwards, 23, had been out of touch with her 42 year old sister Brenda for roughly 18 years. After trying to find her through social networks Facebook and MySpace, Nia turned to Instagram, a photo sharing site. The two were reconnected about 2 weeks ago.

Nia found Brenda’s page and left a comment explaining who she was, asking if Brenda was indeed Brenda Edwards, the daughter of Milton Edwards and told her sister she hadn’t seen her since she was 4 or 5 but loved her very much.

Brenda responded that she was the right ‘Brenda Edwards’ and that she, too, had been looking for her sister. She asked if Nia had a phone.

Because of the social media hook up, not only were the 2 sisters reunited but Nia is going to get to meet an older brother she has never met before, Milton. He is planning a trip to visit Nia in Hazlehurst, Miss. over the summer.

Nia is excited because even though the 2 women barely know each other, it feels as if they’ve known each other their whole lives. The younger sibling is also hoping to reconnect with 2 other siblings, Maurice and Candace. In the meantime, they are keeping in touch via Instagram by commenting on each other’s photos.

Facebook has stirred revolutions in far away places, overthrown dictators and reunited lost loved ones all over the globe but now this social media phenomenon is branching out into the quiet but highly terrifying realm of coping with the grim reality of cancer.

Almost everyone has been touched by the deadly hand of cancer and its terrible aftermath, but knowing how it feels to live with such a diagnosis and how to cope with its terrifying onslaught is like an elitist club in which only those who have been there can qualify as members.

That is why Ihadcancer.com, a new social networking site connecting cancer patients to one another fills a very specific need and works. Founded by breast cancer survivor, Mailet Lopez, after her devastating diagnosis, she realized that despite the concern of loved ones, she was alone in her battle and needed the solace that only someone suffering from the same illness could give her.

Ihadcancer.com is a source of hope, truth and communion. Here one does not hear what others might think is the politically correct thing to say, but rather the truth, simple and straight.

The site has only been online for two weeks and already more than 1,500 survivors and friends from around the world have become members. The positive response has been overwhelmingly encouraging. Similar to Facebook, the site differs in that it is geared to a specific audience. It provides users with a profile, which enables them to share information and interact with other users.
This website is a portal of promise and hope for fighters of this dread disease.

The good news is that fighters win.

Photo source:

http://www.theadbuzz.com