The toxicity of social media got me thinking how good it was in the old days when there were no smartphone or dumbphones. You had to actually go out to get a social life, a lovelife and a sex life.
Seriously.
Nowadays, social media is the entry point for most everything. It’s how you find out about what’s new, what’s news and hooking up as well. There’s Facebook Dating for hook-ups. Not that it’s easy because nowadays it’s all about status; basically how well-stocked your wallet is, is what counts. Everything else follows after that.
What I’ve noticed though is social media brings out the worst in people. There are more psycho-sociopaths now unlike before. It’s a bit difficult to exist in an environment where social media is the gateway and this was true even before the pandemic struck.
If you thought Facebook was bad, TikTok is worst. You see women cavorting, grinding, dancing, clothed or half-naked. Then you see the rich going for popularity and validation. The same is true for the silent rich, or those who never woud’ve made it to the society page and magazines before. As my friend #datachimp says, it’s instant gratification.
That phrase usually connotes masturbation so is social media a form of intellectual or social masturbation? Maybe. Who the fuck knows in this day and age?
I read about the death of Rene Knecht on Facebook. Knecht was a tisoy who was a legend in the 70s through the 80s with his Velvet Slum disco and Gaiety Theatre. This was when Malate was the haven of Pinoy bohemians. There was also Coco Banana and Penguin Cafe. It was where Manila’s social set, then referred to as Manila’s 400 came to party. It was the place to be seen.
This was the time of the generation ahead of us. Those who are in their mid-60s now as opposed to us who are in our mid-50s. Malate was still the “in” place but there were discos cropping up in Makati for the teenagers like us. There was no Gen Z or millennials at that time to describe us. We were the first batch of Yuppies, the young urban professionals whose goal was to work in an office in Makati after college.
If you made it in Makati back then, you were a regular at hotel bars and the long list of bars in both Malate and Makati. In college, you went to the affordable bars in Makati Avenue like Jalisco, Gadzooks, Inner Magic and of course, the institution that was Tia Maria and it’s offshoot, Aunt Mary’s Aunt. Literally Tia ni Tia Maria.
As a yuppie, you graduated to Larry’s Bar, San Mig, Cable Car, Fire and Rain, Strumm’s and the discos such as Rumors, ZigZag and Faces. This was the time when going out on Monday’s, Wednesday’s and Friday’s was the norm. You had Monday blues, the mid-week drinking session and the TGIF special.
It was a good time to be alive and it was even better if you have all three lives; social, love and sex. Of course, you needed a career to sustain all three so it was best if you were a junior manager or executive making your way up the career ladder in your company. A salary then of P10,000 a month was enough to keep you in your three lives.
I almost forgot the boy’s night out. This meant a night out with just the boys. So you went to either a beerhouse with dancers or a dark secluded bar where you could sit with the women. The term GRO hadn’t taken a negative turn yet. That was reserved for those who worked in the five-star hotels. It would take a negative connotation come 1993 when Pharaoh KTV opened with their CLEOs; Client Liaison and Entertainment Officers. This ushered in the age of KTV.
Boy’s night out would usually end with a trip to your favorite sauna/massage parlor for an all-the-way session. This was the term for a happy ending before and no, it wasn’t a hand job. It was “all the way.”. Get it?
Without smartphones and text messaging or Viber or whatever messaging app, there was only the landline and the beeper. I didn’t get a beeper because I didn’t want my girlfriend(s) to be able to reach me. Landline weren’t easy to get at that time so if you were residing outside of Manila, say in Paranaque or Marikina, safe to say you’d be unreachable the minute you’re out of the office unless you told anyone where you’d be going. This was how you could be in two places at the same time. At least that’s what you thought you got away with with your girlfriend.
Working with millennials the past three years has left me wondering how their minds work, even those who are armed with post-graduate degrees. Critical thinking is absent. It’s unlike before when even one whom you though to be a dunce could still carry a conversation.
Today, it’s all about impulse. There is little rationality in their thought process. #Datachimp says that it’s not only a social phenomenon but also the product of how educational institutions condition the minds of students. He isn’t referring to public schools in general but more th private “elite” schools. He’s most critical of his alma mater UP.
Perhaps the best example is the Kabataan party-list representative Raoul Manuel. His gyrations on TikTok had me laughing my ass off. But I was very disappointed when I heard him speak. A summa cum laude graduate who is another leftist-liberal robot. How can you be intelligent if you don’t think critically?
Then there are the social media bloggers who are falling all over themselves as they engage in internecine warfare. Their antics on social media platforms are the lowest of the low. This isn’t only condonation of mediocrity but promoting it. It has become one big beki show where showbiz style reporting mixes with politics.
I was surprised at who was appointed Press Secretary of BBM. I thought there would be an improvement over Martin Andanar but it turned out to be worst than Andanar. It didn’t help the image of the appointee when her team began running videos on TikTok showing her getting her hair and make-up done as she started her day.
In the beginning, social media was a bit voyeuristic. Today it has become outright exhibitionist. I wouldn’t be surprise if one day there was a couple who’d vlog about their sex life. This would be digital “toro.” One that would top the live shows at GOP before along Adriatico and would bury the shenanigans at Patpong.
All of these makes one want to build a sancutuary from mediocrity an idiocy. If I had the means, I’d build a speakeasy that would be a refuge. It would be a small complex where the extinct institutions such as the disco and a good bar would be in place. The disco would play all the hits of the 70s and the 80s. There’d be a bar with an up and coming singer belting out standards. There’d be another bar where one could enjoy the best of jazz and classical music. Smoking would be allowed. Smoking juts would be encouraged. There would be real social interaction, real intellectual conversations which would be akin to intellectual intercourse.
This is why I’m glad I’m old. At least, I got to enjoy life when it was meant to be enjoyed and it meant something. I can’t stand the duplicity and toxicity of the people and environment at present. Nothing good can come out of the principle of “fake it, until you make it.”
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