With Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, LinkedIn and countless others, social media has become a norm in our society. Businesses use various platforms to drive sales, news outlets push their stories to the top of your feeds and it can be a way to keep up with friends whom you haven’t seen in years or decades.

Whether or not you like using social media, I think we can all admit that it is a technology that likely won’t be going away for quite some time. We want to be able to quickly and easily keep in touch with those we love. I use social media for various things. On my personal page, I post a lot about my son and my relationship, along with promotion of local businesses.

A few weeks ago, an older gentleman stopped by the office to run an anniversary announcement in the paper (it was published last week). He explained to me that on their 40th anniversary, he got in big trouble because he didn’t make a big deal about it, so this year, for their 50th, he’s planning to celebrate and show her how much he loves her, including putting a little announcement in my paper, to make up for it. His eyes lit up when he told me about their wedding and how happy she makes him still to this day.

Unfortunately, his wife passed away four years ago, but this quiet, gentle, sweet man is still doing whatever he can to put a smile on his late wife’s face. I posted this story on my own Facebook account, and within hours, it caught the attention of nearly 200 of my friends, two of whom decided to purchase flowers for him when he came to pick up copies of the newspaper last week.

Mr. Martin came, and I handed him his bouquet, with the note that read “In Memory of Darlene.” I was touched almost as much as he was. A simple Facebook post can make someone’s day. That’s the power of social media