The Company of Social Networks by Tara Caples

It was a beautiful Fall day when Lisa’s mother texted her asking her to bring her sick grandmother the cake and flowers she bought the night before. Lisa’s grandmothers house was only a few blocks away but Lisa was annoyed with this request because she was FaceTiming her best friend from her brand new iPhone 5s. Annoyed by the request of her mother, Lisa responded to her mother’s text with a “k, I will later.” Lisa’s mother has been trying to get her daughter more active and off her phone so she told her daughter that she must go now and stay off all of her social networks on her way there because her grandmother was waiting.

Lisa was so angry that she had to end her FaceTime with her best friend early that she grabbed the cake and flowers and stormed out to her grandmother’s house.

Ignoring her mother’s request, Lisa stopped and took a picture of a beautiful Fall tree that had its’ leaves changing. After taking the picture she realized that she had to Instagram it so all of her followers could see how beautiful it was. Every time she got a new “like” on the picture she had to stop and see who it was. This was slowing down her trip to her grandmother’s house tremendously.

An hour’s time had passed and Lisa had still not arrived to her grandmother’s house. Aware of this fact, Lisa’s mother called her to see where she was.

“Lisa! Where are you!?”

“Chill, Mom! I am almost there!”

“What is taking you so long? Your grandmother has been sitting with her door unlocked for an hour waiting for you to show up. What don’t you understand about staying off your social networks and going straight there?”

“Mom! I am almost there. I had to Instagram this beautiful tree that I passed. It’s not my fault that so many of my friends keep liking it causing my Google maps to skip directions.”

“Lisa, you have become way to obsessed with your smart phone and social networks. Go directly to your grandmother’s house. No more stopping. After you mingle with her for a while return home and I am taking your phone away for a week.”

“Ugh!! You are the worst!”

Now even more annoyed with her mother, Lisa once again stopped and updated her Facebook status one last time since she knew her phone was going to get taken away when she got home. “My mom can be so annoying sometimes. I am on my way to my sick grandmothers and she won’t stop yelling at me for every little thing. She is even taking my phone away from me when I get home!—feeling annoyed” Along with this Facebook status she tagged the exact address of her grandmother’s house.

Jamie, Lisa’s friend from school, was on her Facebook and left it open when she went to take her dog out. Jamie’s older brother, Sam, had just been released from jail for drugs and was currently in a relapse. He needed money to buy more drugs and was willing to do anything.

Sam saw Lisa’s most recent Facebook status and thought to himself, “What a great target. An old sick woman and a helpless little teenager. I am sure this old hag has a ton of money lying around in her house.”

Sam jumped in his car and headed to the address he had seen in the Facebook status.

Meanwhile, Lisa was still taking her time walking to her grandmother’s house because she knew the quicker she got home, to sooner her phone would be taken away. She spent majority of her time on Instagram and Facebook but she had also been sending out Tweets about how she wasn’t going to have her phone.

Due to this, Sam had gotten to her grandmother’s home before Lisa did. He stormed inside, yelling at grandma. He made her give him all her money, open the safe, and took all her valuable jewelry. Once he gathered everything, he whispered in her ear, “You can thank your granddaughter”.

The second Lisa arrived to her grandmother’s drive way, she knew something was wrong. The front door was wide open so she started to run towards it. As she was running towards the door, Sam was running out and pushed her down. Lisa only got a glimpse of Sam because she was so startled.  She ran inside and found her grandma laying scared to death on her bedroom floor next to the open, empty, safe.

“Grandma! What happened?”

“Honey, call the cops. I have been robbed. He took everything.” she yelled.

Her grandmother was devastated about all of her jewelry and couldn’t stop crying. Obeying the request of her grandmother, Lisa called 911. After she hung up, she ran back over to her grandmother to try and comfort her.

“Grandma, do you have any idea who did this? I saw him when he was running out but he pushed me over and I could only get a glimpse of him.”

In the midst of crying, her grandmother responded with “I have no idea, honey. But he told me to thank you. Do you have any idea of what he meant?”

“Me? No grandma. I have absolutely no idea. I have never even seen that man before.”

Puzzled by the comment the burglar had said to her grandmother, Lisa comforted her grandmother in fear while they waited for the cops and Lisa’s mom to show up to the house. The cops questioned both Lisa and her grandmother to get all the details of the burglary. After about an hour of questioning and getting the details of what was stolen, the cops left to do some investigating.

Two days passed and they had still not heard any news on the case.

The next morning, Sam was busted for possession of cocaine. On him they found a bunch of Lisa’s grandmother’s jewelry which he then admitted to stealing days before. When asked about why he stole from the old lady he responded with.

“Ha, my little sister left her Facebook open and I saw that dumb little Lisa’s status about her sick grandma who was all alone. The address was right there. She was basically begging me to go steal from her.”

When the cops found this out they called in Lisa and her mother. They informed them of what Sam had said and told Lisa how important it was for her to be more careful about what she posted on the Internet.

This event traumatized Lisa and she never posted about her location on the Internet again.

By: Tara Caples