In a couple of days I will be going under the knife. Yep, they are cutting me open. Well, actually they are just cutting my gums open and breaking my upper jaw…ah the pleasures of oral surgery. So I am on a mad race to finish all school work prior to my surgery, in order to provide myself with the maximum amount of time possible to sleep on a couch and dream about nothing of any real importance. Now, as a result of this pleasant occasion I will be left with a nice gap between my two front teeth for a good couple of months, or until my teeth decide to mozy on over to their rightful position. Now what in the world does oral surgery have to do with social media you ask? Well more than one would think.

When I posted to my Facebook page about my exciting upcoming event, I was wished well by all my friends. The support one can get from others during stressful times is no longer just a hug from a close friend, it is now support from your whole circle of friends.

One thing I am very thankful for with this upcoming event is the fact that as I lie on a couch for a week recovering with a large gap between my teeth, I do not have to be cut off from the world. The physical world most likely, but the world of social media will be as easily accessible from my couch as it would be from the SLAIS computer lab. And best of all, the huge gap between my teeth with be completelty irrelevent when talking to someone on Facebook, posting to Twitter, or logging on to my class wikis. The fact that I can remain physically anonymous while participating in discussions at least gives me confidence that any physical reprocussions from my surgery do not need to be apparent when using social media tools. And in a few days I will be very thankful for that!

As related to my posting from Sunday, maybe those that participate a lot in social media are those that prefer to remain physically anonymous on the web, or those that are quite shy when it comes to living their day to day lives, and they only ‘come out’ when they have logged in. Remaining anonymous in the social media world definitely has its advantages, whether you have a giant gap between your teeth, or you are just shy in person, either way, social media allows you to be your ultimate, anonymous, self.