It’s been said our industry has done itself no favors by chronicling our own demise.

In my opinion, that demise is somewhat exaggerated.

Yes, we’re a little bit different, but we are still here, even thriving in some ways.

Another thing the newspaper industry likes to do is bemoan social media and the damage it has done to erode trust in news.

I can’t deny that last week’s “swatting” hoax at Findlay High School saw social media at its worst. On a prominent, user-created Hancock County social media page, posters spread rumor after rumor of what was going on at the high school. Most of those rumors were completely false, but many of them added to an already stressful situation by inducing further panic.

Meanwhile, the local news organizations covering the event carefully crafted our words in our effort to always transmit nothing but the news and to lean on confirmation and not innuendo.

The difference was stark.

We as the media like to teach that lesson — make sure you use a trusted news source and not just some social media gadfly.

Like anything with technology, however, there is a positive component, and I must give social media its due on its power of connection.

I had a conversation with a friend one night about how he was checking in with my family through the Facebook pages of my wife and me.

We both commented that, despite its many ills, social media does provide us a nice ability to connect better with those from our past who we’d more easily lose touch with.

That conversation took place the day before my birthday. Instead of parties, gifts galore, and sleepovers, birthdays these days are normally filled with emails, meetings, and trips to the grocery store — just like any other day.

However, as I get older, I’ve found that birthdays now contain more nuanced joys — a coffee here or a greeting from a coworker there. Those birthday nuances are actually found best on social media.

From the time I woke up on my birthday, my notifications dinged as people from all parts of my past and present took a few moments to say hi and wish me well. Both my mom and my wife — also esteemed editors of this column — wrote nice Facebook posts about me, which prompted more people to say hello. My phone, which usually gets texts about our printing schedule or what we’re having for dinner, buzzed with messages from friends and family to whom I don’t talk often.

Like I do every year, it was my annual reminder of the wonder of life’s journey, and of all the people we come across along our winding path.

I thought of grade school, middle school, high school, college, my young years in my profession. I thought of the magical time with Betsy before kids, the time when we had just one child, then two, then our move to a new state, with changes coming at every turn. Of all the activities and involvement. Our “tribe,” current and past.

As my oldest is just weeks away from being an official high schooler, thinking back on the depth of the past makes me flash a firm smile with just the slightest trace of pensiveness. It’s full of joy, yet also reminiscent with a small twinge of melancholy. I can’t get a redo on any of those times, but, man, I think I’ve made the most of them. The smile is also filled with hope and excitement, the feeling that there are many more experiences waiting around the bend.

I don’t know if I’d have been able to reflect that way without social media. I certainly would have gotten calls. My mom and wife would still have made me feel special. I’d still go to dinner with those I love and open a gift or two.

But my birthday wouldn’t have the depth it provides each year. I’m known to say that I focus on two things — the present and the future. The only reason to go to the past is to help either the present or the future, I say.

Each year on my birthday I am reminded that that thought is flawed. Deep down inside, we all want to be liked, to be loved. To have people care enough to take a few moments to drop by and say hello.

Maybe it’s selfish, but I see it as something else — an affirmation that, through every stage of life, I’ve made a difference.

It’s healthy to slow down, reflect, and even to flash a smile with depth and meaning.

Despite its ills, social media’s top function has always been about connection.

And that’s exactly in line with human nature’s top function.

Alpena native Jeremy Speer is the publisher of The Courier in Findlay, Ohio, the Sandusky (Ohio) Register, The Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin, Ohio, the Norwalk (Ohio) Reflector, and Review Times in Fostoria, Ohio. He can be reached at jeremyspeer@thecourier.com.