When was the last time you organised an event without using social networking? For me it was just last week but that was only because I wasn’t on Facebook.

I realised that if I wanted to catch up with my friends on an upcoming trip home, I was going to have to get out the phone and give them a call – old school style.

Normally I would have sent a quick Facebook message asking who would be around and available. This works – most of the time – but sometimes people don’t check their account or are inadvertently missed. The day that I spent at Uni I overheard a few students next to me talking about missing out on an invite for this very reason.

‘You didn’t know about it? Oh I put it on Facebook. Maybe your not in that group.’

Or conversely –the horror stories of parties that get out of hand because of the social networking wildfire. I am glad I grew up in a time where we had to swap details at school about who was having a party – even  this sometimes got out of hand!

You know how it goes when you organise something over Facebook. You send the message, wait a few days, go back and check for responses, collect the numbers, wait a few more days, send a back up text in case people missed the message and it goes on. So while the apparent ease and convince of Facebook messaging seems to make things quicker it actually slows the whole process! I also think when you are sending out a group invite people are less compelled to respond straight away. It is human nature to think – the message was to the whole group, I can hang back a bit and reply later.

I spent about two hours on the phone with my friends. It wasn’t just logistical organisation – that was planned quickly. I found there was so much more I wanted to share with them that I hadn’t realised. I shared a little in their lives again – even if only briefly.

It would have been organised either way, but I enjoyed calling my friends much more than leaving a Facebook message. I’m looking forward to next week and with them all locked in  – it’s a date.