The days I remember were great. Those in the community were never monetized, and no one seemed interested in fame or fortune. It was just a group of people who enjoyed the hobby and were looking for others with whom to share it. Some vestiges remain, but few people continue to post. I am sure it still exists...on some new app or website. Truth be told the place that it occupied in my life is largely filled. Family, work, and advancing age have all cut my smoking time and social needs down significantly.
I have also learned that the promise of social media and the connections it offered are of a distinctly different nature than we may once have expected. Once projected to be the Neuromancer, Ready Player One, playground for making meaningful connections, it proved to be less personal than it once was. All of this is because money got involved. A lot of money.
Various social media sites were a unique opportunity to meet new people, keep up with friends, gather into groups based upon our interests and dreams. Now it seems focused upon gaining an audience. No one had even heard of an influencer, much less think of it as a legitimate career. The world has changed. I would not say that it got better or worse, just different.
Websites were better. Before every site was built to make money there were sites that were just silly. Fewer sites had logins, cookies, and advertisement. People were just excited to put something out into cyberspace and be thrilled that anyone else would be able to see it. Now, I haven't surfed the internet for weird and wonderful for years. It is behind a paywall, it is all strictly professional. Social media took over the part of the internet that had me visiting blogs on the weekly. Podcasts went from being a basement affair to big business. Videos started including a striking amount of advertisers. People started asking for viewers to comment, like, and subscribe...and give them money on Patreon. Of course the most amazing thing to me is that people actually do it. I have never once been compelled to give someone money just to watch them make videos from their basement.
Then the "I'm quitting!" videos started to show up. How very odd. What we used to do for fun became too taxing. Content creation was no longer recreation...it became business. Did people stop doing things for fun or did those who were in it for the money crowd them out? It isn't just on the internet, it is a phenomenon in the western world. Everything is about money, and few are motivated by simple joyous desire to make connections and talk about the things that enrich our lives.
I wonder if the thing I remember is still out there. I can't say that I would want to go back to making a few videos or blog posts a week as it took time. As my children grow up I have a bit more independence. I could make a video or throw a thought out into the world now and again. I never thought I would be a dinosaur so soon. Looking back at those simple frivolous moments thinking, talking, and writing about pipes and tobacco I do have fond memories.
Just to keep on theme, I have been enjoying my cobbit pipe by Missouri Meerchaum. And I have been smoking Brian Fox, Captain Black Royal, and a local pipe shop bulk tobacco called Collins Comfort. The brotherhood of the briar still calls to me in my memories. And I rarely enjoy a pipe without also thinking about my old online friends.
