The Popular Facebook Group, "Dad Rocks" Is All About The Music And Building A Positive Community On Social Media

      Covid-19 had hit pretty us hard here in Bowling Green and Southcentral Kentucky during the Spring and Summer of 2020 with everything basically shutdown.  Public gatherings such as churches, weddings, parties, concerts and movie theaters came to a standstill with a limited amount of seating at restaurants and bars here in Kentucky as well as other places across the country.

      In order for me to cope with the sense of isolation when I was not working at my job as an "essential worker," I ended up spending a lot of time on my backyard deck grilling out and listening to rock music on my JBL bluetooth speaker during those cool spring evenings and hot summer nights. I had also developed an original playlist on my Apple Music app of rock songs which I played quite often while grilling out.  And I played the music loud during those decent hours of the early evenings of course where it did not disturb my neighbors.  If it did, I never heard any complaints out of anyone.     In the meantime, while I was looking at my Facebook app on my iPhone, I noticed that some of my friends like to do the same thing I was doing too. They were also grilling out on their backyard decks and patios and listening to music by themselves or with small groups of people.  Mainly, they would be with their own family members and of course their dogs and cats too while outside. And I would always have my Australian Shepherd, "Jude" with me and sometimes my wife and son also.

Then the idea occurred to me one evening while grilling out that I should create a private Facebook group where all my friends can join in and we can post of favorite rock videos, pics, stories and share memories in order to communicate with each in regards to our mutual love for rock music.  And we would only have one main rule: "No fighting, no arguing or no bullshit." Now, we have over 1,000 group members since I created the group in April of this year. The key to the fast growth of our group is because I have a great co-admin, Britt Moore of North Mississippi, who is a former classmate of mine from Hernando High School in Hernando, Miss., where I graduated in the early 80's and because everybody is tired of all the bullshit going on in the world especially on social media. Such as the 2020 presidential election and all of this Covid-19 crap. Then this awesome documentary on Netflix comes along called, "The Social Dilemma."  It's about the flip side of this wonderful modern invention called the "internet' and all of the social media sites such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram among many others. The creators and inventors of some of these sites are interviewed and they talk about the dark side or the flip side of social media and how it's created a lot of chaos in the world and divisions among groups of people whether it was intentional or not.  However, they claim that it was not to suppose be this way originally.  But it just grew and grew into this monstrous thing so quickly with millions and millions of people jumping on board which has become all about money and the collection of data.  Nowadays, the social media companies are some of the wealthiest companies out there in the world because they are selling "targeted, precise and direct advertising," to their clients.  Also these social media companies such as Facebook and Google have collected tons and tons of info on their users through the years and have even created profiles on them using computer algorithms in order to target ads for their clients.  They know what we like and what we hate that's for damn sure.

So with my new profound knowledge from watching this documentary on Netflix, I decided to take our private Facebook group one step even further and start proclaiming that we are "bucking the trend of negativity on social media and Facebook where there is no fighting, arguing or bullshit."  Dad Rocks is a happy and safe place where you can go to relax and post your favorites songs, videos and share your personal stories and memories without the worry of criticism while grilling out on the backyard deck or patio or sitting inside in your own home during the wintertime by the fireplace.  Or no matter where you are at in the world during the current moment. Dad Rocks helps you escape what happening in the world today especially during this very nasty election year along with all the Covid-19 worries. And I encourage all of our members to keep inviting their friends and family member too on daily basis and remind everyone what our group is about on my monthly podcast that I created over a month ago also called, "Dad Rocks."  In the Netflix documentary, it said that human beings since their evolution have always had that innate desire to have communication with each other and create communities.  So with the invention of the internet and social media apps and websites, we are now riding that wave of the future by building a better social media community that is positive, fun and safe.  We are looking forward to continue to build our social media rock music community and create new friendships where nobody is criticize for their taste in their music or rock videos. Because we all realize that music is a very powerful thing that touches every human being in a positive way, one way or another.  Mainly, we all know too well that music heals the human soul also! Which is an awesome thing!