As with everything, there are two sides to every story. The consumer side and the business side. So let's look at the consumer side first and let's face it the more positive side. By positive I mean the pros vastly outweigh the cons.
So what do you get in this digital age? You know what is on in the bar (or growler system) before you arrive courtesy of TapLister, so you can choose your beer on the way or decide you have better beer in the house. Through Twitter you get a constant stream of up to date information on what is in your local bottle shop, send them a query about stock or ask if they are getting the latest releases in. You can do this through Facebook, but to be honest, Twitter is where it is at. You can see what everyone else is drinking through Untappd while detailing your own journey into casual alcoholism. Now for a personal bugbear of mine, unlink this from your twitter as you will be duplicating content and spamming people who follow you on both. You will have people reaching for that mute option! All in all, you can engage with your beer providers 24/7, be that the bar, bottle shop or brewery. But beware, you can also become an asshole fairly easily. Complaining about a service on Twitter is an easy thing to do, you are cloaked in an internet version of yourself and don't have business to lose. Have the common courtesy to deal with bad service with the business directly, if they don't respond positively then get your keyboard warrior hat on but don't be surprised if you get ignored. Is all this healthy though? Time will tell about the pros and cons of being constantly connected, but when you look around your local and everyone is simply staring at their phone updating whatever, think, are we actually removing the social aspect of beer, by being more social?
Be social in the bar, not social! |
For me the main headliners are, don't feed the trolls and don't be a dick. Be part of the community, be respectful and don't air your dirty laundry.
I will leave the bloggers out of this, we are like assholes with opinions and everyone has one.... or something like that.
My name is Bruce!
Photo Credit