Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Things I Think: Social Media Makes Life Better
For anyone who ever argues the social media is not an awesome thing, allow me to demonstrate why those people aren’t using it right. About a week ago, in a pinch, the fam’ decided to go Up North (what Michiganders call anything north of Flint) for some winter fun, and we don’t have ice skates for kids. But I know that tons of my friends have kids who play hockey so I asked on Facebook, “hey …anyone have a pair of size 11, 13, size 2, and size 8 skates?”
Lo and behold people came out of the woodwork saying we could borrow theirs, or they’d sell me theirs, and voila! …we had skates for the weekend.
Exhibit B … Wednesday I got it in my head that I wanted to hear some old P.M. Dawn …I mean, bam, right at bedtime, I got a P.M. Dawn tune stuck in my head and rationalized this was one of my all time favorite groups (duos) even though I didn’t have their CDs in my music collection. P.M. Dawn, for those who don’t know, is (are) an awesome transcendental-sounding R&B group from the late 80s.
I went to Facebook saying, “I sure do love me some P.M. Dawn but can’t find much about them on-line and don’t have any of their CDs.”
Less than 24-hours later, I met with reader C.K. and she pulled P.M. Dawn’s debut CD from her purse and I’ve been listening to it non-stop ever since.
OK. wait, before you think I use social media like a pan-handler, here’s a better example.
Lastly, I’m sure we all think we keep-in-touch with friends and family we want to keep in touch with, and we don’t with others who’re not A-list material. Me? I’m the opposite …I wish I could keep-in-touch with more of my family and friends but with kids, and work, and hobbies, and my international spying and espionage, it’s tough …enter Twitter. One of my coolest cousins, J.M., is on Twitter …an unlikely place I thought I’d connect with him, but we’re connected. He’s as funny and interesting as ever, and we Tweet at or DM each other quite a bit and I’m pretty happy to say we’ve reconnected and it’s great. And he lives in Wyoming. He lived 1 hour from me for a decade and it took him moving to Wyoming for us to hang-out and shoot-the-shit all the time. And we do it with Twitter.
The same thing is happening with my Uncle R, who has lived in Boston my whole life, and whom I certainly didn’t know all that well …now, due to the power of Facebook, I’m naming his cats, he’s reading my blog, and we “talk” (interact on-line) all the time. Again …it’s great.
Yes, you could argue that if we were really “close” and intended to be “close”, well, why wouldn’t we just call each other every few weeks. Um, because …I’m convinced nobody does that. I’m also convinced we become “close” to people in our proximity …neighbors, co-workers, immediate family, families at school or church. It’s accessibility to people that makes us close. If that immediate proximity were to change, admit it, how many people in your “circle” would you keep in touch with?
What I’m saying is, Twitter has put J.M. (and Uncle R) back in my circle and this is a great thing …because they’re both great guys. And surrounding myself with great and good people, like my cousin and Uncle, help keep me on the straight-and-narrow and make me a better person.
So there. I don’t actually know who I’m throwing this in the face of, but I’m throwing it in someone’s face. Bam. Booyah! Zing! Pow! Wap! Social media is great.
Thanks for stopping by again and reading a blog post I wrote. Next up …365 New Year’s Resolutions.
Don Kowalewski 
I completely agree, Don. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, but I’ve found that connecting with my friends that I never saw or talked to before social media outweighs putting up with the, ahem, others. P.S. I LOVE P.M. Dawn…and now I’m gonna have to try to download some.