I like Twitter but I know it’s in trouble. I don’t know what the situation is with Facebook, but I do remember when fern bars were super popular. You just had to go! You just had to be there and that was all there was to it. Have some fried zucchini, right? See and be seen. Mingle!
Then one day, a line no one could see was crossed. It was at that point the popularity of fern bars had peaked.
I watched them close over the course of a few years. It was fast, considering how established some of them were. Where else were you going to meet your date from AOL singles or whatever that was.
I don’t know what did these bars in. Tough DUI laws? Too expensive to go out and drink? Match.com providing and alternate way for people to meet potential partners? Or did people just look up one day and decide they whole scene had become passe?
What do you think is the future of social media? What’s the astrology?
In my opinion, social media should be under 3 house (communication and interraction, sharing with impressions, news, photos) and 11 house (unions, groups with some purpose). But 11 house on good evolution level supposes working in group like ants and 3 house suppose share with effective information or information for soul, that people really need. Its hard for ego and people can’t jump higher, than they being, and the most wise decision will be not interract, where you waste you time and energy under 12 house. And this is a big problem, because in 20th century it was TV, substitute of real life, and now its internet. Porn, cruelty, many of politics and easy pop corn films. And computer for some people isn’t tool for working or for another aim like fork or table or bed (with purpose for employment). Computer is more than this, comparing with drug. But is it deserve this? Now level of communication is big, but it must be adequate.
I really have no clue. As an Aquarian I guess I should be more social media savvy but Mercury in Pisces muddles me. I was hardcore addicted to MySpace and then Facebook. I’m at Facebook now under a fake now because Facebook asked me to prove that my real name is real. Fuck that noise. I prefer Twitter and Instagram. I’m making professional connections with those. I was on Tinder for a few seconds. It’s gross. With Pluto moving into Aquarius it should be interesting to see if social media crashes and burns. Death of instant celebrity. If everyone’s a super star then no one is.
(under a fake name, rather)
If everyone’s a super star then no one is!
Love this Misti!
Agreed.
Thanks, soup! 🙂
I like Twitter. Mostly for the up to the minute news. But I read of its finances and know it’s on it’s way out.
And I don’t think a new fern bar can takes it’s place. It’s just playing out from what I can see.
I wish they would all fizzle out. The whole lot. I too like the up to the minute news. But I don’t like knowing so much about the people I thought I knew. Just because we have a thought doesn’t mean we need to blast it on FB and twitter every minute of the day. I have done this myself. I don’t like it after I do it.
I really need to close the whole show down. And, I think I probably will. I moved away from my original FB account to get away from some of the people. If I block them I will be hung in the town square. So I opened another for the people I love to hear from or read…and slowly I am letting that other one sit… until no one visits anymore. I wont have unfriended or blocked…so I will let them think, I just went periscope down. I use twitter in spurts.
I wish we could go back to quiet thinking.
I’m on Facebook but not on Twitter. I wish it would all fizzle out too. I hardly post any more. I mostly observe these days. I’ve grown tired of peoples endless selfies and portraying that they have these perfect happy lives. I know better than to believe it but I can see how all this can lead people to get depressed.
My boredom with Facebook is that it seems to have become full of business promoting themselves, or more specifically getting people to shill themselves to promote those businesses.
Throw in the sharing of banal quizzes and inspirational quotes and I find my Newsfeed often doesn’t have that much of interest on it.
There are the occasional decent news & video clips people share … brilliant one the other day from Tonight with John Oliver about Donald Trump … but also a lot of crappy clips that I really have no interest in.
I’m sure if I were to reduce my FB friends down to genuine friends most of these issues would go away but being part of various clubs and groups tends to have led to lots of acquaintances wanting to be my FB friend.
Mostly I use FB as a messaging system because it’s easier than email.
FB and Twitter are 1st generation social media. They are for old folks. Full disclosure: I am old folks, too. IG started out young, but is now old, and so is Pinterest. Anything that you can promote a business on and make a buck off of is for old folks. Pluto is stalking heavily among the 2nd generation social media that I don’t use, like Snapchat and Kix. In Virginia, a 12 year old was just killed by a pair of 18 year old tag team predators after they interacted on a 2nd generation site. It’s harder to trace crime and bullying and naked pics of classmates on the 2nd generation sites. There is probably going to be a new crop of 3rd generation sites adapted for Oculus very soon. Oculus scares the living daylights out of me – I can’t even imagine the impact of it on a developing child’s brain. Don’t want my little niece or infant nephew near it (which shows you how old my outlook is).
I saw the group of people with those headsets on. My first thought was, “put these on, look at the pretty picture. Soon as you do, we’re gonna mow you down…gas you.”
There is no way hell I would be in a room like that. Common sense.
I hope people don’t rely on the collective of social media to do their thinking. When the floor buckles… where do you stand?
I have literally never heard of a fern bar in my life.
You are not alone, Jennifer, haha, generation thing, probably? Had the be there to know what it was really like I guess.
They were popular in the 80’s into the very early 90’s. Now that I think of it, you might say they replaced discos.
These bars were considered (and called) “meat markets”. The decor and atmosphere were quite different. Fern bars were understated as compared to discos and focused on mingling and conversation. They also had lots of ferns…green decor, Irish names…sort of an American take on an Irish pub. Stained glass-ish tiffany lamps shades, either on the tables, hanging or both. Those green bankers lamps were also popular.
So essentially, people are social. They try to see and be seen…the internet took over, aol singles, then Match.com, and the next copycat and the next and then the apps came into being.
And people play in these arenas for some years and then they move on or marry, age out of them in some way. So Tansy is probably right.
They didn’t cook their zucchinis right.
The food back then was all fried. But chicken wings were not popular at that time. The main thing is people all the sudden ate truckloads of that breaded, fried zucchini, dunked in ranch dressing, most of the time. This was bar “health food”. 🙂
I’m worried about the 2nd and 3rd generation social media. It’s bad out there for relational bullying…. and, I think who do I have to talk to so it doesn’t get out of hand? It’s an interesting contrast with “back to the basics” movement (related to recession) with hyperspeed tech changes… good points made….
I wonder if the market is saturated now?
And are investors going to keep funding social media if no one is paying for it? Question is what are (younger) people willing to pay for?
And where are they going to get the money?
It’s a wonder Twitter lasted this long. It’s not a picture friendly platform and your communication needs to be pretty short on it. People today are essentially narcissists, if they can’t put as many pics of themselves up, they will soon get tired of it.
From this point of view, Facebook will live forever.
I guess people like the brevity. Seems it’s mostly for networking, promoting your business, and keeping tabs on celebrities. Also reporting real time news in some countries that repress the news.
I think Instagram and tumblr are more popular with young people. Also Snapchat
I have two accounts on Twitter (one old, one new) and don’t use either of them.
Facebook….I’m getting tired of it. Can’t get rid of it at the moment, but it’s getting on my nerves. Political rants. Fake news stories that the public eats up. Memes with preachy sayings or ATTITUDE. Annoying!
Surely fern bars did not exist in Oklahoma. I deactivated FB several months ago, dumping the baby with the bath water. There are a precious few people I’d like to stay in touch with but also an endless tide of meaningless stuffff as well. I’m really better off without it, emotionally.
This is a good topic. Social media has evolved so much as it catered to the human id. First it was people crying into the void, sharing too much information. Then petitions and viral news became the vogue as Uranus and Pluto squared off. People felt distrustful of the news and shared their own. Also wanted to show how part of the solution they are.
Now young people are moving from Twitter and Facebook to Instagram. Social media may become obsolete as another necessary technological innovation takes its place or it may morph again beyond recognition
I think with Pluto in Capricorn people feel very suspicious and mistrustful of government and corporations. So many are moving off Facebook. I was reading that trust is an important ingredient in a stable democracy and it felt weird to read.