Welcome to a new series here on Lacuna Loft!  Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking about different ways of connecting with other young adult cancer survivors.  Today we talk about facebook!

How are you liking this new series?  To recap, so far we’ve talked about connecting with other young adults using instagram and twitter.

Have you thought about using social media to find other survivors (instead of using it to realize that all of your non-cancer-having-young-adult friends seem to be having an easier time at life than you are right now?)  Take control over the interweb info that you consume and gain some young-adult-cancer-having love at the same time!

Today we look into the world of connecting with other young adult cancer survivors through facebook.  Now, don’t get me wrong, bookface (and social media in general) is often a challenge for young adult cancer survivors.  You see your friends posting happy photos, underlining just how much you might be missing out on while you deal with your cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.  But, today we’ll explain how you can easily find other young adult cancer survivors to talk to!

Now, unlike instagram and twitter where you can quickly use hashtags (#) to find a tribe of people, navigating facebook is easiest through the search bar at the top.  By simply typing young adult cancer in the search bar, you can quickly find a number of young adult cancer groups to join.  These different groups show up as a form of drop down menu where you can then click on one or more that interests you.  Other search terms also show up (at the bottom), providing you with more options for connecting with other young adult cancer survivors.   Many of these groups offer opportunities to post anonymous questions to receive feedback about your pressing issues and concerns.  The Stupid Cancer groups even offer the chance for meetups with other young adult cancer survivors in your area.

As I’ve said in the previous posts in this series, connecting with other survivors is a very powerful experience.  Knowing that you aren’t alone is a big deal…being able to share your good times and bad times with those who truly understand adds that extra bit of control to an otherwise frightening and out of control experience.

You can also use this search method to find other caregivers on facebook.  Many of the caregiving sites have very active members who will jump at the chance to offer any sort of support that you may be seeking!

P.S.  #youngadultcancer on instagram & #yacancer and #ayacsm on twitter