Misery loves company.  It’s true in life, and it’s true on Twitter.  When you don’t feel well or are going through a difficult time, most people feel better when they share their experience with others.  It’s human nature.  To some extent, other people appreciate engaging with people going through a challenge, either indirectly (watching a drama unfold from afar) or directly (being able to support a friend in need). 

These long-standing realities of human interaction are taking place on Twitter, highlighted by two recent high-profile examples:

1. Jason went through a travel nightmare.  His tweets along the way provided dramatic entertainment for his 5,000+ followers, including Fred.
2. On a much more serious note, the recent passing of Marc Orchant inspired dozens of blog posts.  As news of his heart attack unfolded, however, it spread quickly on Twitter, with those who cared about were Marc compelled to share their concern and support.

A less public and more personal example occurred this past week.

Over Thanksgiving, I set my mom up with Twitter (and Snitter).  I set her to follow my brother and me, and honestly didn’t expect her to tweet.  She lives alone about an hour away from us, and her work has her online a lot, so I figured she’d just enjoy seeing tweets about what her kids (and grandkids) are up to all day. 

Much to my surprise, she was tweeting immediately, mostly about things happening around the house.  Occasionally she’d tweet about her old dog Lucy, who hadn’t been doing well for the past several months.  About a week ago, with the support of her vet, she made the very difficult decision to have Lucy put to sleep.  She emailed the family, and we talked about it in person (you know, old school human-style) during a recent visit. 

In the days following her decision, mom’s tweets were telling.  “Wishing Lucy was a lot younger” and “Feeling sad about my dog…” and “I don’t want to say goodbye to my dog.” and ultimately just “Two more hours.”  Mom is too strong and independent to ask more of us to be there with her (my oldest brother, who lives nearby, was), but it was clear that being able to share her feelings passively with more people along the way was comforting for her.  We emailed her and called her, but group support via Twitter somehow seemed best — a way for us to deal as a family.

For me, it was another example of technology being both wonderful — it allowed a degree to connectivity with my mom during a tough time that never would have happened otherwise — and completely insignificant.  Human nature shows through, no matter what tools we happen to be using at the moment.