The Night Facebook Saved My Life

Well, not really.

But it certainly makes for a good headline, and helped me craft some of the most entertaining and useful social media posts of my facebook-life to date.  Washington was paralyzed yesterday by a snowstorm that in most places would have been the topic of conversation, but not a threat of apocalyptic scale.  But Washington is populated by people like me:  well-meaning Californians (or others) who know they are lousy at driving in the snow and probably have no business behind a wheel in anything beyond drizzle.  But, alas, I had kids at home, a wife in Africa on business, and I needed to get back home.  At about hour 3 of the trip, still stuck in traffic that had been halted by stranded cars and panicked road conditions, my quenched gas tank finally gave out.  And there I was, an urban joke.  The Californian stuck in a snowstorm right off Memorial Bridge.  I found a safe place to pull my car over with a few fumes left over, and hunkered down for the trek by foot.  How ironic to be walking through the cushiest suburban streets of Arlington, with the place looking like something out of a post-nuclear disaster.  Few, if any people.  Cars trickling in off the highways, filtered in from hours-long traffic jams.

So, what’s a boy to do?  My phone was working, so I decided this was the night to crowdsource my commute, and figure out what Facebook could do to help me get home?  3 little kids – one stressed-out babysitter – and a frantic Dad’s sanity all depended on it.

With a few posts about my situation, the sympathy “likes” and “OMGs” started pouring-in.   While it didn’t do anything to get me closer to home, I was amazed how connected my immediate situation was with the reality of friends.  People were cooking breakfast or taking care of kids in Asia, and talking to me about how to trek in the snow a few dozen timezones away.  Cousins and friends did their best to be cyber-cheerleaders, posting and/or sending messages as if I were a snow-marathoner.  All very good for the spirit.

Then things got very local.

The minute I told people where I was, the offers of rides and/or people who knew people who were passing my intersection at some point started to pour in.  I had no idea where any of these people were, of course, and some of them didn’t even know me.  And yet, by posting a little humble pie in my Facebook menu that night, I ended-up finding a much-needed ride home that cut my hike down by a few hours.  And when I was picked-up by a kind soul in a Subaru who saw me mucking my way up a Hill on a usually busy boulevard, I let people know where I was and what was happening.  As I got into the car, that 2 seconds of “did I just get into the car of a chainsaw-killer?” was eased by the idea “at least my Facebook friends know I did it – that should make my body easier to find!”  And of course the end result was that I ended-up praising my newfound friend with a few social media shout-outs once I got home and the snow had abated.

So maybe Facebook didn’t save my life last night.  But it certainly took a mid-winter mishap from uncomfortable, long and freezing to funny, a bit quicker… and freezing.

By popular demand (thanks, Mark!), here’s the evolution of that Facebook exchange…