Of Hamburgers and Social Media

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From the moment I walked into my first Five Guys, I was in awe.  All the peanuts you can eat, a simple no-nonsense menu, and a burger buried in a bag of tasty fries.   Forget Jimmy Buffet.  The stark white and red-trimmed interior of Five Guys is the true cheeseburger paradise.  But I digress…

In light of this Ode to Five Guys (I swear I have no stake in the company), you’d think I go there all the time, and, for a while, that was the case.  But no more.  Now I try to avoid the place for two reasons.  One, as much as I love it, I know the food’s only real purpose is to take up permanent residence in my arteries.  Two, the “new” wore off.    Yes, I’m no more than a shallow reflection of society at large.  I gobble up novelty and then, unless there’s a more meaningful permanence to the relationship, I move on.

Now, I do have a reason for writing all of this and, rest assured, it has little to do with actual hamburgers.  The point is, there’s change in the air.    Google+ is waving its digital fist at Facebook and Twitter.  Once fresh off the fryer,  these platforms are starting to lose their exotic  hamburger sizzle.  The fries are cooling.    Some people are starting to see them for what they are.  Still tasty, but, are they what you really want, now that you can see past the “new”?    And what about this Google+?   This may or may not be the new contender that topples the old.  However, you know something will.   It’s only a matter of time – meaning we’re all going to have to be nimble in the next few years.  We can expect the first wave of social media players who need to find and “early adopt”  new online communities as a means of maintaining a hold on the cutting edge.   Then the masses, scared of irrelevance, follow whether they’re truly personally motivated or not.  Not making judgements here.  That’s just organisms in flow, and systems in flux.

I sense the current is turning against Facebook and Twitter.  I’m not predicting their out and out demise or downfall.  Just saying that humans are predictable.   In real estate and desirable destinations, whether they’re real or virtual,  allure comes not with the established old haunts, but with what’s around the corner.

That said, I still love Five Guys. I swear I’ll still visit every once in a while.

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