Here is an all too familiar experience: you’re scrolling down your Facebook homepage, reading your friends’ statuses, when suddenly something other than a cute song quote or complaint about homework catches your eye – your cousin is pregnant. What?! Sure, you’re not that close to her, but you would have hoped that something that important would have been communicated to you differently.

In our world, important information is being communicated online: break-ups, birthdays and engagements, to name just a few. Frankly, it is insulting to discover a vital tidbit of news by chance; you would have hoped that your friend would have confided their secret or important news to you personally, instead of leaving it to you to pick the news out of a massive tangle of online information.

Even if news is shared in a personal message, rather than on the public wall or status update, there are nuances of conversation which are beyond the capability of mere text conveyed online; is a winky face really sufficient to demonstrate sarcasm, or “lol,” laughter?

These communicative shortcomings cannot be ignored, and yet, neither can the benefits of instant Internet communication. I would rather find out my cousin is pregnant over Facebook than not know at all, and since face to face communication is not available in many situations, Facebook is a good second option.

What then of the times when world news stories are conveyed over Facebook? The accessibility and speed of Facebook has led many news stations to create Facebook pages of their own. The impersonal nature of the cold, hard text communications via Facebook is not at all a bad way to convey the cold, hard facts of a news story.

Of course, any of the communicative shortcuts of our modern era can be abused, but the same could be said of any invention. Since Facebook news spreads like wildfire—fast and difficult to undo—news can be easily spread before it is verified. But the spread of corrections are just as instantaneous.

So next time you are stunned by your Facebook newsfeed, don’t become bitter at being informed in a way different from the good ol’ days; just be glad you know.