Hair straighteners, social media and the Christmas closure of three pubs.

Two isolated incidents during my Christmas holiday twigged a trail of thought in my mind about a trend,that whilst already in motion, could hugely accelerate in 2009. My 18-year old sister created an almighty racket in my house a couple of days before Christmas, screaming blue murder all through the upstairs hall and turning her bedroom upside down. She’d left her hair straighteners at work and was due to meet her three closest friends, who she’s known for 7 years, at a local pub to swap Christmas presents.

Despite the family’s assurances that she looked equally lovely with a hat on, or with her hair up, she was still mumbling on and further chastising herself until she eventually came out with: “Think about it, they’ll take their cameras and they WILL be pictures ……on Facebook and MySpace”. Hold that thought.Also, whilst at home, three well-known pubs in my hometown were closed down.


The pubs are traditional spit and sawdust British pubs that have suffered from the recession, but have also attracted a notoriety of being, shall we say, of interest to an older clientele. The biggest problem that these pubs faced is that they weren’t bringing in the MySpace generation, and there was a clear disparity between these pubs’ average customer age and the other thriving bars in the town centre.

The question I am posing is about the “local pub’s” role in the community and the perpetuation of the public sphere and the potential effect social media may have on this. Historically, the pub has always been a pillar of the community, and central to the local community, transcending normal social stratifications like gender, age, salary and occupation. It could be argued that my sister’s preoccupation with protecting her online image, occurs at the potential detriment of the traditional community function of the public house.

If the pub is 2009’s version of the Habermasian coffee house for social discussion, surely this is lost if trips to the pub descend into a precession of various pouting photos. If new, 18 year old patrons are more concerned with how this particular trip to the pub will contribute to their online profile, how can this not relegate the discussion that takes place to at least secondary. Obviously, the penchant for digitally capturing every quiet pint is generational, those of us whose parents are on Facebook wouldn’t expect to see, in my case, pictures of their Dad asking Terry how he’s finding retirement. The one-night, one pub, often one drink photo albums are often posted by the newly legal pub goers, those who have been social media users for 3-5 years before they walk into their first saloon. So does this mean that pubs of the future, in say 20-25 years will be full of the flash of cameras as the pub becomes less of a place of discourse, but just another venue in the continued online documentation of people’s existence.

Whilst this obviously isn’t going to happen overnight, if the MySpace generation are lost to the pub trade or don’t utilize it as an arena for the public sphere to thrive, how will the night-time economy change? This trend could, in future generations, lead to the traditional public sphere moving online and the public house having to hand over the responsibility of hosting social discourse over to the online community. Current trends show that 35 pubs a week close in the UK, in the same week that Tesco announced that their 2008 digital camera sales were up 19% on last year and they now sell a camera in the UK every 40 seconds.


Beck (1994) argues that society in general is being aestheticized through our preoccupation with style, fashion and presentation. Considered discussion is being replaced with Nike trainers and Ferrari Testarossas and while the Marxist idea of a docile public is not new one, the current state of the British pub trade in conjunction with the rise of social media, demands its re-examination. Perhaps of still greater concern, is Bauman’s idea that the very idea of a public sphere, be it online of offline, is in danger as the idea of “common interests is becoming increasingly nebulous” as fragmentation pulls society in a multitude of different directions.(Bauman, 2000).

Another development on this theme is Facebook mobile. Over the Christmas period I noticed a massive rise, amongst my friends at least, of status updates whilst people are actually out socializing.

Examples have included:“Luke is out drinking at the Light Bar having a blinder”“Claire is in Liquid clubbing it up with my cousin”

I struggle to comprehend this and surely this is an example of my argument. If a few people are sacrificing a certain amount of the time they spend actually socialising to use social media, surely the enjoyment and importance of face-to-face conversation is being slowly phased into the background. Whilst only one of an ever-growing list of nemesis’ to the pub trade, if social media is picking up the reins of social discourse, could an argument be made that the lost generation of potential trade is as big an issue as the credit crunch or the smoking ban? Could this be why my local had 3 balliff letters last month and might not still be open when I next go home?

Perhaps I am looking too much into this, maybe all the ladies reading this will simply feel my sisters pain re hair straighteners. My perception was that her reasoning was symptomatic of a wider trend that leading to an increasing number of pub visits by new pub goers descending into mere contributions to Flickr, Facebook and MySpace.