By Pattie Mihalik

When a tropical storm began to batter our community, my friend Andy and his wife went outside to tie down his pontoon boat.

As they looked across the canal, they saw a disturbing site. A bird trapped in fishing lure was swinging helplessly from a tall tree. Although the bird kept trying to free itself, the high winds kept it swinging like a clock pendulum.

Andy knew he had to do something to help the tortured bird.

But it was stuck in the tree 20 feet in the air and 18 feet away from land.

Andy and his wife tried reaching it by standing on their pontoon boat, but the bird was too high for them to reach.

Never one to give up, Andy went online and posted a short video of the helpless bird on our community’s Facebook page, asking if anyone could help.

Within minutes four residents came to help, including two who had the long poles used to clip tall trees.

By standing on the pontoon boat, they were able to use the long pole cutter to cut the fishing lure and free the bird.

While they were still wondering what to do with the injured bird, two volunteers with the a wildlife center came to help. They gently wrapped the bird in a soft blanket and took it for treatment.

All that while the storm was still raging.

A close-up photo of the beautiful bird wrapped in the blankets touched hearts. More than 150 people expressed their appreciation for those who saved the bird.

All that happened for two reasons: Because Andy is kindhearted, always willing to go the distance to help.

But there was another force that allowed the successful rescue to happen — social media at its best.

Our community Facebook page has thousands of users always ready to respond to a call for help.

The bird rescue was just one of the many times help came quickly needed.

A while back when a fellow’s truck broke down while he was on his way home with frozen food, he went on our community Facebook page to ask if anyone was willing to pick him up with his groceries. Andy got there in minutes, but someone else had already responded.

There are dozens of stories about incidents like that where the community social media page was instrumental in finding the help people needed.

The most striking time of all came when Hurricane Irma hit our area. Before the hurricane hit panicked people not able to put up their hurricane shutters by themselves found the help they needed on the community Facebook page. Most people helped without charge.

Strangers offered a place to stay to those afraid to sit out the storm alone.

Most of us lost electricity for about a week. Many people used grills to cook meals, issuing an invitation on Facebook for anyone who wanted to come for a meal.

This effort started with a few good souls and soon had dozens of people cooking community meals.

After the hurricane was over, local contractors delayed their own work to assist those who needed help cleaning up their property.

Hurricane Irma helped social media prove its worth.

It has also fostered friendships within the community.

But there are plenty of problems with social media.

To put it bluntly, some people are nasty. They seem to thrive on bullying or putting down others.

Then there are the scam artists. No sooner is one revealed than another one pops up.

On our community Facebook pages, we have a fabulous system of nipping some of these problems in the bud. Several administrators police the posts, pulling off those that are hurtful or that violate the rules.

These administrators are all volunteers and they take a lot of guff. But they do it to keep our community pages as pure as possible.

Sure, some sneak by. But not for long.

I like our community Facebook pages. I’ve used them to get recommendations for contractors and handymen I need.

I especially like the uplifting stories that surface occasionally as well as the wildlife photos many post.

But I don’t like social media as much as I once did.

I see too much pointless rudeness. And too many sarcastic comments slip in.

Using Facebook in general has many perks as well as many problems.

Not minor problems, either. In addition to scams, identities can be stolen and phony sites can be set up.

I try to be careful but I fell for two of those scams.

A friend had her entire identity stolen by someone who set up a phony site pretending to be her. When I started getting messages from her that didn’t sound like something she would write, I stopped responding.

But all that gives me pause.

Sure, Facebook can be fun.

It lets us keep in contact with people we value.

But it can cause many problems too, including the fact that I’ve “been hacked.”

Because of those problems, I’ve started to severely limit my social media friends. I’ve made a determination to limit my posts, too.

At this point the jury is still out for whether I should give it up altogether.

What about you? Does social media enhance your life or, are you leery of it.

One thing is certain: It has changed our lives in significant ways.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.