Home General Discussion

Why Facebook is Killing Cigar Culture

youngryan216youngryan216 Posts: 1,127 ✭✭✭
edited September 2015 in General Discussion

Why Facebook is killing cigar culture: Boobs, mold, and $20 Ligas.

            The Internet has changed the dynamics of quite a few industries over the last few years. None was transformed more interestingly than the cigar industry. Once a face-to-face exchange at local tobacco stores, cigar buying has forced savvy consumers onto bidding websites and other online conglomerates in search of the best prices.

            One by-product of this online shift is the burgeoning presence of cigar-related social media. Many cigar websites have their own forums for users to share content and Instagram has a decent clique of cigar lovers that share cigar pics and often, short reviews of recently smoked stogies.

            None of these media outlets is more detrimental to cigar culture than Facebook groups. The largest groups are nothing more than bragging boards for mid-life-crisising 40 somethings, or con men coyly begging for handouts from established members.

            The typical day of posts for one of these groups includes: gratuitous boob and ass pictures that objectify the women pictured and occasionally feature a cigar in the frame somewhere, endless arguments about if a Cuban cigar is real or fake (generally, if you have to ask, it’s fake), and endless arguments about mold versus plume (generally, if you have to ask, it’s mold).

            In one case, a male member added an attractive female smoker to one of these groups and within weeks she left the group from the sheer amount of harassment and **** pics in her inbox.

I am absolutely sick of this behavior and disrespect for this pastime many hold in great reverence. Cigar smoking has gone from something cerebral to participate in socially, to something you post pictures of and brag about on social media. This “brag culture,” even more than the T&A pictures, is a cancer on the heart of cigar culture. It shows newbies that cigar smoking is all about chasing rare smokes and overspending on Liga Privada. It shows non-smokers that smokers are materialistic / chauvinistic loudmouths that love guns and boobs more than we love being thoughtful and classy. I’ve even seen people posting pictures of themselves smoking the band. What is going on in our culture? Do we need so much attention on the label of what we are smoking that we need to smoke it and post a picture on social media?

            The hobby has been minimized to something very much based on the amount of money spent by the smoker and not the evolution of the palate or the passing on of knowledge and traditions to future generations of smokers.

           It’s hard to picture Winston Churchill posting his stash on Facebook. It just seems like things have shifted in our hobby and the douchebags have taken over. Maybe I’m getting a little too get-off-my-lawn here, but posting your whole collection on social media is like the cigar version of a **** pic.

            Smokers that do truly “get it,” understand the culture of giving and inclusion that is sadly missing in this group of social mutants, braggadocios and beggars. I am really hoping things change, but right now I’m removing myself from these groups and would advise anyone who cares about the longevity of our culture to do the same.

 

-Ryan Young



































ISO Ramrod and Ron Mexico
«13

Comments

  • PatrickbrickPatrickbrick Posts: 7,722 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If you don't do social media of any kind than none of this bullshit will ever bother you.  Just saying.  Also if boobs and cigars want to be in the same picture well then more power to the boobs.  Of course that last statement was sarcasm.  But I do like boobs none the less.  This is strictly my opinion.
    "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".  Winston Churchill.
    MOW badge received.
  • youngryan216youngryan216 Posts: 1,127 ✭✭✭
    I agree that it's my own fault for attempting social media, but I'm more concerned that it's going to negatively affect the culture of the future regardless of my level of participation.

    And yes, I too love me some boobs. I just don't think I'll be posting my wife's sweater cows holding a $3 stick anytime soon.
    ISO Ramrod and Ron Mexico
  • FlyteFlyte Posts: 25 ✭✭
    Keep in mind that not all of us have friends or family that enjoy cigars, or have a decent tobacconist shop within 100 miles of our homes. Where I'm from smoking of any kind (pipes, cigars, cigarettes, etc...) is rare and looked down upon. I recently started enjoying cigars on occasion and to be honest this forum has been more inviting and helpful than any b&m in my area. It's all a matter of whether you believe and follow those who are "ruining" cigar culture. Each individual has their own and if they want to include boobs in the picture then that's their choice. 
  • wahooschockwahooschock Posts: 792 ✭✭✭
    Thats why I'm only in one group and its one with botl from here. All scenes are like this though. Vape,car,guns,cigars...even mopedslol I just seek the few real lovers of whatever it is I'm into.like here or redneck .
    I love my pack and a good community (cigars/Vape)
    "I'm at the point in my life where if it doesn't taste good,I'm not putting it in my mouth"
  • CharlieHeisCharlieHeis Posts: 8,144 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I follow several cigar people on Instagram but they get a quick unfollow if they post a photo holding a cigar while showing off their enormous douchey watch.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Thanks for posting.

     I don't do facebook. 

    This seems to be the direction culture is taking in general.  We're becoming vacuous, egocentric, and crass on a grand scale.  One of those repeating cycles in history, usually followed by a serious come-uppance.

     Worrisome.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • Usaf06Usaf06 Posts: 10,932 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ryan I'm in that group and usually don't post anything at all. I agree there is a bunch of douche rockets bragging about watches and guns and what ever the hell else they can think of but I just laugh. Having said that, I have also managed to get a hold of cigars I have looked for at a really great price. My favorite is the price people pay for Liga, got damn it's funny. 
    "I drink a great deal. I sleep a little, and I smoke cigar after cigar. That is why I am in two-hundred-percent form."
    -- Winston Churchill

    "LET'S GO FRANCIS"     Peter

  • raisindotraisindot Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭
    Isn't  "cigar culture" an oxymoron? :*  
  • rsherman24rsherman24 Posts: 6,736 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You are always going to get the begging and bragging.  I am part of the group you are referring to, but have never posted anything.  I follow more for viewing pleasure or a good laugh.

    Personally I think the cigar industry is leading everyone down this path.  With all of the social media, crazy packaging, high prices, limited edition, special releases and  celebrity branding people buy up cigars just so they can post a pic of the $30 smoke or a HTF release.  I don't think its a bad thing, but it does open the door for a lot of DBag's.  

    Like everything else about this hobby, it is subjective.  Smoke what you like, read what you want, buy what you want to smoke
  • Usaf06Usaf06 Posts: 10,932 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I'm tellin you, watching those Liga auctions is pure comedy
    "I drink a great deal. I sleep a little, and I smoke cigar after cigar. That is why I am in two-hundred-percent form."
    -- Winston Churchill

    "LET'S GO FRANCIS"     Peter

  • WoodguardenWoodguarden Posts: 130 ✭✭✭

    Facebook is killing Culture - period!

    My feed is primarily pictures of what people ate for dinner, cat videos, disgusting videos of people popping things on their body. It started out as a great idea and has gone downhill ever since.

  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    A year or two ago I was talked into joining Facebook. After about a week I'd had all I could stand of it. My reaction to it all was "who needs this?  Who's got time in their life for all this nonsense and completely irrelevant crap"?  I decided to 'unjoin' and was amazed at the built-in difficulty of the process. It's obviously designed to deter people like myself from going through it. 

    And then, after jumping through all the hoops of the 'unjoin' process, I was informed that if anyone happened to post something to my account for the next two weeks the process would be cancelled and I'd have to start all over again. I spent those two weeks praying that no one would post anything....

    What's amazing to me is that there are obviously so many people out there who have absolutely no life... no constructive way to pass their time. It's a sad commentary....
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ryan,  you're not dropping out of ccom too are you? Hope not. Maybe you'll come around more if you stay away from facebook. Hope so.

    Personally, I only do ccom as my cigar related social media. No twitter, instagram or whatever. I don't get on facebook much and when I do it's to catch up with my old high school alumni. Our last HS reunion is what got me onto facebook in the first place. And, that's all I have really used it for to this point. 
  • jliujliu Posts: 7,735 ✭✭✭✭
    Why would I get on social media to look at women's boobs?  I got a set of killer knockers myself.  

    Also, I agree with Ryan 
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    jliu said:
    Why would I get on social media to look at women's boobs?  I got a set of killer knockers myself.  


    By golly, you DO, don't ya??  :p
  • youngryan216youngryan216 Posts: 1,127 ✭✭✭
    Thanks for reading my soapbox rant fellas.
    I'm going to stick to ccom (for life!) and also I'll keep doing my short reviews on instagram, but I can't do Facebook cigar media I guess. It's too infuriating and vapid. Not that Facebook itself isn't both of those things, it's just killing the hobby for me and I have to stop the slideshow of idiots.

    My question is, do I post my rant on their page before I remove myself? :wink: 
    ISO Ramrod and Ron Mexico
  • Usaf06Usaf06 Posts: 10,932 ✭✭✭✭✭
    would be funny to read comments so i say yes
    "I drink a great deal. I sleep a little, and I smoke cigar after cigar. That is why I am in two-hundred-percent form."
    -- Winston Churchill

    "LET'S GO FRANCIS"     Peter

  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,004 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Thanks for reading my soapbox rant fellas.
    I'm going to stick to ccom (for life!) and also I'll keep doing my short reviews on instagram, but I can't do Facebook cigar media I guess. It's too infuriating and vapid. Not that Facebook itself isn't both of those things, it's just killing the hobby for me and I have to stop the slideshow of idiots.

    My question is, do I post my rant on their page before I remove myself? :wink: 
    OK but don't tell them where to find you. We don't want any of those guys. Except maybe the guy with the boob posts.
  • jgibvjgibv Posts: 9,244 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited September 2015
    facebook's full of narcissits these days....you don't say?
    what's next, you gonna tell me the sky is blue and grass is green? whoa now!
    :lol:   ;)


    but yeah facebook was good about 10 years ago when it was just college kids and you had to have an .edu account to join. 

    now it's just spam from slack-jawed-yokels just spewing hot aired nonsense. 

    only thing i find it useful for is organizing events with big groups of friends. 
    i imagine it'll go the way of friendster and myspace soon enough.



    if you do decide to post your rant over there, just be sure to use small words - don't wanna confuse those poor souls :D
    (and be sure to share the responses over here, i can always use a good chuckle.) 




    * I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *

  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Facebook is excellent for grandmas, tho. Nana gets to admire today's pics of their latest grand progeny half a continent away, demonstrating both their breathtaking beauty and their incipient calculus. Bearswatter plays facebook every day. It's good for that.

    Me, I don't play. 
    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)


  • curtpickcurtpick Posts: 2,757 ✭✭✭
    More b o o b s !!!!
    Family, Friends, Golf, Cigars, Fine Whiskey, Good beer.... is there anything else ?  Follow on instagram @crguy1961
  • PatrickbrickPatrickbrick Posts: 7,722 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I agree that it's my own fault for attempting social media, but I'm more concerned that it's going to negatively affect the culture of the future regardless of my level of participation.

    And yes, I too love me some boobs. I just don't think I'll be posting my wife's sweater cows holding a $3 stick anytime soon.

    That last sentence almost made me fall out of chair, I have to say that I too share that sentiment.
    "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give".  Winston Churchill.
    MOW badge received.
  • OneisnoneOneisnone Posts: 459 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I fail to see how Facebook is Killing Cigar Culture. Your feed/ "friends" maybe out of alignment with your view of how "cigar culture" is defined. If so change that, or seek out sources that fit your view. 

    Nothing has meaning beyond that which that you give it.
  • jarublajarubla Posts: 2,329 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I dunno, Ryan. I think there are arsehats everywhere in all things in all places. C2 can create perhaps an artificial concentration of them, but it also has quite a few upstanding people too.

    This scenario seems to be congruent for me for every phase of my life--there are cliques, there are braggarts, there are objectifiers, etc. I do my own thing, they do theirs. 

    I am like some of the others who posted about being isolated--I make efforts to be a true BOTL, including: encouraging, herfing, making the occasional gift--and I try to teach decency and kindness in my life in general. My city has no lounges, is not friendly to smoking of any kind, and is predominantly a majorly conservative religious culture (read anti smoking/drinking).

    Ccom is without a doubt fantastic. C2 is a far second, but absolutely has let me meet some stand up people, as well as lined up some HTF (to me) sticks at fair deals. With C2 (and FB in general), I just try and remember that FOMO is BS, and that I am in no way in competition with anyone. I get to walk my own path. 

    I really do think there are yahoos in every group, club, and fellowship. The key is being able to weed through the whackadoodles and find the gems.

    I too vote you stay here on Ccom

    -Jay
    “There’ll be two dates on your tombstone and all your friends will read ’em but all that’s gonna matter is that little dash between ’em.” -Kevin Welch
  • Liming21Liming21 Posts: 4
    Living in a very small town, Los Alamos NM, we have a very small facebook group for us cigar smokers. It started with a group of us from the local church here, and we ended up creating a facebook page to make it easy for us to let each other know if someone was in the mood to light up, and have company. Its a small group, but since we all know each other, we dont have problems. And since we all have smartphones, it makes it easy to get group events going. We even setup a shooting and lunch day, with the wives just two weeks ago. Then when we got home, we fired up some cigars, and had some laughs over a good day. I guess its all about how its setup and why.
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Oneisnone said:

    Nothing has meaning beyond that which that you give it.
    Modern nihilism at its best. 
    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)


  • OneisnoneOneisnone Posts: 459 ✭✭✭✭✭
    webmost said:
    Oneisnone said:

    Nothing has meaning beyond that which that you give it.
    Modern nihilism at its best. 
    More along this line of thought.....


    “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” 
    ― Viktor E. FranklMan's Search for Meaning


  • Usaf06Usaf06 Posts: 10,932 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Mile... You are a poet sir
    "I drink a great deal. I sleep a little, and I smoke cigar after cigar. That is why I am in two-hundred-percent form."
    -- Winston Churchill

    "LET'S GO FRANCIS"     Peter

Sign In or Register to comment.