Tonight I was surprised by a friend request 
on Facebook. Mama Kasongo invited me to connect. I discovered that she and Papa Kasongo are both on Facebook; her as of Saturday and him as of last week. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, they have smartphones, which are essentially handheld computers – a valuable resource in America. Some might be concerned that government dollars are helping pay for smartphones; yet when I think about all that can be done – maps, job searches, emails, shopping, etc. on the internet, a smartphone is a great way to go. If I were forced to land in a new country and choose between getting a smartphone or a laptop first, I’d probably choose the phone.
Regardless, I found myself very surprised. It seems so “first world” to me to be Facebook friends. Yet, there are 1.8 billion Facebook monthly users or 25% of the world population. So, I know I shouldn’t be surprised, yet I am. Maybe it’s also surprising to me because it seems that they have so much to worry about – jobs, figuring out new culture, getting kids into school, learning so many new things in their new country, etc. Yet, social connections are wonderfully important and valuable not just of social enjoyment, but also connections for solving problems, finding jobs, etc. Developing nations all over the world are bypassing landlines to go straight to mobile phones. Once online, some studies find a higher percentage of mobile users in developing using social networking than the US and Europe. Mobile payments were more popular in some African nations among mobile users than they were in much of the world according to some studies, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that trend still held true today. While they joined just weeks ago, a scan of their friends, shows people all over the world – very possibly connections made through their time being displaced from Congo until they became refugees and now legal immigrants to the United States.
Anyway – it’s fun to be connected on Facebook with our new friends online now – less than 3 weeks after they arrived in the US.
Smartphone Image attribution: By Nitobi – Nitobi, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16892267