Changing Connections

I mentioned previously that Facebook really opened up connections for pilot wives. 10 years ago there was one primary forum, Jetgirls, and a few other smaller ones. One had to specifically seek them out and unless you were familiar with the concept of a forum, you probably didn’t search for one. I stumbled on Jetgirls after finding its brother site Jetcareers. We were all a happy family, getting to know each other virtually, sharing our ups, downs, and questions. It was a smallish community where you started to know people through their posts and replies. With the rise of social media in our lives Facebook has taken over as the connector of choice. There are Facebook groups for everything now days and options for secret and limited memberships as well as open to anyone. Now, there are tons of ways for pilot wives to connect via groups. There are several general groups and many niche groups- airline specific, family, political, cooking, reading. Don’t like a member of a group or want to discuss something specific? Start your own group. No need for a website, forum software or anything else. The groups have become a great resource in connecting with others and sharing information. Some groups have become overwhelmingly large and generalized at this point which definitely means a loss of a small community where people get to know each other personally. I went on vacation and visited ladies I met in the Jetgirls forums but I have yet to make a new friend via a Facebook group. Facebook can be great if you want 500 opinions on when to call a union rep or commiserate how difficult life can be but who wants to air their laundry for that many people or run the risk of someone telling someone telling someone about something you posted and having it get back to your pilot or his company in a negative way? Facebook is not nearly the private entity people pretend it is. Also with newer groups there are a lot more random posts to weed through- questions about kitchen remodels, photos of snakes defeated, complaints about in laws... Hang around long enough and you will see the same questions and topics replayed over and over. Admittedly, topics don’t hang around in a Facebook feed long enough for newer people to know the topic has already been hashed out. Unless, you know, search function. Overall, it’s good the worlds gotten smaller and there are more connections out there to be made. It’s just finding the time to whittle down and actually make the connections.