Every generation has a fad that is both omnipresent and utterly foolish when viewed through the rear view mirror of history. Whether it was the Pet Rock of the 1970s or the Chia Pet of the 80′s, memories of American youth are littered with these cultural touch stones that seemed like a good idea for a small window of time.

For me and many others coming of age in the 1990′s, the fad that was unavoidable was POGS.

image

Remember POGS? The game was ubiquitous for a few years, and even though I remember thinking “Hey, I don’t really see why everyone is playing this game,” I wound up buying some POGS and slammers and participating in POG culture anyway.

Why did I do this? There are many reasons, but mainly I did it because all my friends were doing it and I wanted something to do with them that we could all relate to. But then, before I had mastered the art of slamming the hell out of cardboard milk caps with Smurfs painted on them, the cultural winds shifted. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment in time, but almost as quickly as POGS took over middle schools across the country, they were gone. Replaced by Pokemon or Hypercolor or some other unspeakable fad, the American love affair with POGS was at an end.

Why do I bring this up on the Reputation.com Blog? There are many reasons, but the main one is that all of the hype over Social Media looks a lot like POGS to me. From the tech sites to the blogs to the MSM, it seems that everyone has a twitter and a myspace and a blog and a facebook these days. Why? I think for the same cultural reasons that drove POGS to such meteoric heights. People want to connect with one another, sure. And these technologies have altered the ways that we connect with one another for the better.

But on some level I fear that social media is just a fad. Or a series of tech fads. In just a few short years friend sites have already come and gone much like the POGS and Beanie Babies of yore. Remember Friendster? That site is just as culturally relevant today as Teddy Ruxpin is. Unless individuals and companies can find innovative and valuable ways to connect people, the next social networking site could be nothing more than a pile of POGS.

Readers are encouraged to share how they derive value from social media in the comments below. They should also opine on the best fads from the past 40 years.