Some days, if I close my eyes and listen real close, I can actually hear them. Hundreds and thousands of tiny voices buzzing in unison – a sound not unlike the drone of those damn vuvuzelas.
“Everyone needs a powerful social marketing tool.”
“I have to say, I think Inception is probably the first movie I’ve been genuinely excited about in years.”
“Raw Anger Spills At Conference On BP Gulf Disaster”
“Anyone want to buy this lovely piece of furniture?”
It’s been interesting to watch people I know morph into their social media avatars. Opinions normally reserved to quiet conversation among friends are now broadcast without hesitation. Photos of their children, GPS coordinates, internal dialogue and monologue, theories and conversation. Moments of thought that could have taken years of friendship to release, are practically thrown onto my lap(top) daily. But do I feel closer to my friends because of this? I don’t know. The amount of information that comes through our social media pipelines is overwhelming. And as a result, I think I tend to ignore my friends more than I ever did before.
I was out to dinner with my mom recently and noticed she was looking quizzically at the table in front of us. I looked up and saw three young ladies having dinner. Plates of food, drinks, mid-meal. Blond, brunette and black manes, styled, as you would, going out, anticipating conversation, casual glances, unexpected meetings. And mom says, “Look at them, they are all texting. They’re not talking.” All of them were looking down at their phones, fingers flying. After about five minutes, one of them put her phone down and looked up at the others who were still texting, but she seemed content to sit and wait for them to finish. Had she had her fill of conversation on and off line? Was she tapped out? How was it possible for these three friends to have virtual conversations that were more interesting than the conversation that was going on in front of them? How easily are we distracted?
Dr. David Rock wrote in his book, Your Brain at Work:
“One study found that… employees spent an average of 11 minutes on a project before being distracted. After an interruption it takes them 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they do at all. People switch activities every three minutes, either making a call, speaking with someone in their cubicle, or working on a document.”
Will Right in an article for the New Scientist wrote,
“The relentless influx of emails, cell phone calls and instant messages received by modern workers can reduce their IQ by more than smoking marijuana, suggests UK research.”
Social media is more harmful to the brain than pot? Can we legalize pot already!
Now, both those studies were done in 2005. Facebook was launched in 2004, and was only opened up to everyone in 2006. Twitter was launched in 2006. Can you imagine how these studies would look today?
By distracting ourselves with the white noise of virtual conversation, we have willingly given up access to our most precious commodity – time.
In a Twitter stream I was peripherally watching at work (distraction), people were all a flutter over Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. Here are a couple of quotes from his presentation:
“Social experience is a lot more engaging than traditional advertising”
“…natural tension between sharing more but wanting to control what is shared…more and more people feel comfortable sharing more stuff.”
“Every industry will go through revolution by redesigning around people.”
And these, my friends, provide the key. Corporate technology will continue to redesign communication tools in a way we accept, so they can continue to advertise to us. What is a “conversation tool” to us, is money to them. We are not commodities, people!
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50% of Boomers and 83% of Millennials sleep with their cell phone on or right next to their bed, making it the first and last thing they often reach for each day.
[Published by Ken Vernon Compiled April 2010 © Defakto LLC.]
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And they’re getting smart. They have moved from the soapbox to the auction house. Sites like Groupon and Voyage Price give you club prices with no membership fees. How do they do it? They cut out the sales team and get your friends to sell the products to you. Mob mentality.
You know those times when you have a deadline a month away to ship a gift to your best friend in time for their birthday (sorry Ann, you know I love you!)? Then it diminishes down to a week, then down to a day. And then you just didn’t get the gift. Or what about when you have your mom on the line, Twitter feeds in your face, email and appointment reminders dinging on your phone and your computer simultaneously, and you suddenly forget who you are talking to? TECHNOLOGY 1, PEOPLE 0
You know those times you are driving down the street and someone starts to swerve erratically in front of you, and your experienced analysis of the situation would have lead you to believe this person was drunk. But when you drive by, no, they are just talking or texting on their phone. TECHNOLOGY 1, PEOPLE 0
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“Nearly half (47%) of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message while driving. That compares to one in three (34%) texting teens ages 16-17 who said they had “texted while driving” in a September 2009 survey.
[Pew Internet : Adults and Cell Phone Distractions]
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Everyone is so over-stimulated these days that they are ignoring everything in front of them. It’s like we’re all occupying the same space, but not engaging anymore. I have a birthday coming up and I think the present I’ll give myself is a day of disconnect. One day, no computer, no apps. No dings, no rings. I’ll spend the day looking at the people around me instead of the people in my phone.
Then I’ll wake up and run to Facebook to see who has wished me a Happy Birthday.
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Sheila Shidnia is the Director of Web Marketing and Communication for Butler University where she successfully initiates, develops, and manages interdisciplinary marketing programs. She has, at various moments in time, managed recording sessions for BMG, run a small publishing company, run a record label, made pillows, produced records, produced humans, played Rachmaninoff, transcribed early American folk songs, tended bar in Red Hook, played in a percussion ensemble, studied sound design with Robert Moog, and is currently on a mission to master backgammon. Twitter: @sheilashidnia.
