Currently 74% of U.S. adults are actively using some form of social media and my fellow baby boomer peers are the fast growing demographic amongst users. In the past few years I have really adopted the technology to benefit both my personal life and career. For all the negative aspects that can be discussed when talking about social media’s effect on our society, ultimately in my eyes all it takes area few heartwarming stories to make it a true benefit to the world (Remember how Twitter was used to spread the word to protesters in Cairo in 2011, which sparked the Egyptian Revolution)
This past Monday my friend Rhonda emailed me this picture of a Corgi that was found in Rancho Santa Fe with tags that only had the name “Rebecca” and no microchip. The couple who found had no luck when asking animal shelters if anybody was looking for her and have another dog that didn’t get along with her, so they were being forced to separate them until they could place her in a good home.
I Immediately posted about the situation on my Facebook page, and within an hour I got a message from my friend Tasha Ardalan who owns a organic dog treat company named Foxy Treats. She told me that she forwarded the information to a contact in her social network named Geri who is very active within the local corgi community.
On Tuesday, Geri messaged me and said that his contact John was interested in adopting Rebecca. John is retired, already has 2 other corgi girls, and has the time and heart to attend to his dogs.
So on Wednesday, I connected Rhonda with John, and organized to meet up later that day at Yappy Hour, the dog friendly at the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club.
How AMAZING is that?! In a little over 48 hours, through the power and reach of social media we were all able to tap our social circles and connect two parties who were 6 degrees away from each other (Couple who found the dog > Rhonda > Me (Janet) > Tasha > Geri > John) and in the end turn a negative situation into a positive one for both a dog-loving retiree and one lucky pup.