Facebook leads to real friendships
Woman’s positive postings draw her internet friends to her
One recent evening a few dozen folks met at a North Valley restaurant to talk and laugh and celebrate as old friends do.
Most had never met one another until that night.
And most were there at the request of a special friend they were especially excited to meet. Rhonda Seidenwurm has been their genial compatriot amid the cacophony, their daily dose of sunshine and sensibility in a world that had gone wacky and weird and downright mean.
“She helps me keep my sanity,” said JoAnn Anders, one of the guests Monday night at Sadie’s. “Every day,
I check in to see what Rhonda has to say.”
Rhonda often had a lot to say. And she says it on Facebook.
That’s how these folks connected with one another — a friend of a friend knew a friend of a friend and so on until the social interlacing eventually led to Seidenwurm, whose daily postings — particularly on the day’s political events — were delivered in her inimitable Southern sass and persuasion.
“All of these yet un-met Facebook friends have found their way to Rhonda through her fabulous writings on current events and life’s musings,” said Mary Darling, who is not only a Facebook friend but a friend in the flesh. “She hasn’t courted any of them herself. They have found their own way to her. Some of those friends live here in Albuquerque, some from other parts of the state and several from across the country.”
Nancy and Terry Barrow traveled all the way from Clovis to attend the party.
“She’s worth honoring,” Terry Barrow said. “I saw some of her posts and found that she was intelligent, well-spoken, pointed but not provocative.”
During the presidential campaign in 2016, they say Seidenwurm posted her witty assessments of the debates and the conventions and the daily barrage of news and commercials and crazy. She has continued to do that ever since.
“She did that so we didn’t have to,” Anders joked.
Seidenwurm became someone to talk to when politics divided friends and family.
“She cracks me up,” said Suzanne Humble, another guest who said polarizing politics have put her at odds with her more conservative family. “I remember reading her on Facebook and saying, ‘I have to follow this person.’ ”
And, yes, Seidenwurm does have a particular political bent, a particular disdain for a particular news channel and a particular president. That, though, was not the reason for the party.
Seidenwurm — a retired educator who over the years served as school superintendent in Clovis and in Philadelphia, Miss.; regional superintendent in Albuquerque; deputy superintendent in Las Cruces and associate superintendent in Van Buren, Ark. — wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday by meeting her Facebook friends.
And she wanted these friends to make new friends among one another. It was, she told the crowd, their assignment.
“We’re all good people here,” she said. “Meet somebody you didn’t know.” Or didn’t know in real life. Seidenwurm’s actual birthday was Jan. 8, but as she told the group, that’s not the most convenient day to throw a party, being so close to New Year’s Day and Christmas and the gloom of winter. Instead, she chose Feb. 11, which is National Make a Friend Day. Which seemed just perfect. Tables were decorated with emojibedazzled bouquets and different colored slips of paper printed with samplings of Seidenwurm’s witty posts over the years.
“The depth of her posts, how intentional and thoughtful and informative they are — that just resonated with me,” said Chris O’Donnell, another Facebook friend. “Hers go far beyond just the `look at me’ and happy baby posts.”
By the end of the evening, Seidenwurm, ever the educator, gave everybody an A for completing their “new friend” assignment.
Some might argue that Facebook separates us, allows us to hide behind avatars that don’t look like us and words that don’t sound like us. We say things sometimes we might never say to someone else’s face. We lurk. We troll. We hide behind a screen rather than attend a party. We rage online rather than channel our frustrations into something more fruitful. It is too easy to click on a sad or angry emoji rather than express those feelings, easier to hit the like button than tell someone in person that you appreciate them, easier to unfriend than to talk things over.
But that night, thanks to Seidenwurm, social media became social, and Facebook friends became friends, real and in the flesh. UpFront is a front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 8233603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.