Counsel: Skim Culture

FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010

Skim Culture: The Triumph Of Surface over Substance


Information overload and our growing online dependence is changing the way we think about, process and retain information….


Shorcut Society

WITH SO MANY MEDIUMS DELIVERING INFORMATION ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, PEOPLE ARE ADAPTING BY DEVELOPING NEW EDITING AND RETENTION BEHAVIORS.

THIS HAS IMPLICATIONS NOT ONLY, FOR HOW WE CONSUME INFORMATION AND MEDIA, BUT ALSO MORE IMPORTANTLY HOW WE MAKE DECISIONS AND VIEW THE WORLD.

FROM SEARCH TO DESTINATION


ADD World

ATTENTION SPANS ARE DIMINISHING. WE ARE BECOMING INCREASINGLY RELIANT ON A SKIM-READ, INSTANT SEARCH AND HEADLINE ORIENTATED MINDSET

ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY UK BANK LLOYDS’ TSB “The average attention span had fallen to just 5 minutes, down from 12 minutes 10 years ago. A quarter of people polled said they regularly forget the names of close friends or relatives, and seven per cent even admitted to momentarily forgetting their own birthdays.” [1]

MOST PEOPLE NOW EXPECT INFORMATION TO BE EDITED AND PRE-DIGESTED, FEW ARE INTERESTED, OR HAVE THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND THE ‘FULL’ STORY.

“What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” [2]


Memory Storage

WITH SO MANY DIGITAL MEMORY AIDS AND DEVICES AVAILABLE WE NO LONGER NEED TO RELY ON OUR OWN MEMORIES.

REFLECTING THE DE-MATERIALIZATION OF INFORMATION

SCIENTISTS ALREADY PREDICT THAT IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE PEOPLE WILL ‘OFFLOAD’ AND STORE MEMORIES DIRECT FROM THEIR BRAINS.

“The Personal Memory Device (PMD) sounds like science fiction, but the technology for creating it exist today. It could be and iPhone app.” James Kent, Your Personal Memory Device. You could have one today. [4]

IN THE MEANTIME THE MARKET FOR ONLINE MEMORY AND STORAGE IS BOOMING.


Death of ‘Long Form’

ALL THIS IS IMPACTING HOW WE THINK AND THE KIND OF STORIES WE RELATE TO.

DEATH OF LONG FORM JOURNALISM.

PEOPLE BUY FEWER BOOKS AND READ EVEN LESS.


Story Structures are Changing

THE FILM INDUSTRY AND MIT MEDIA LABS ARE LAUNCHING A ‘CENTRE FOR FUTURE STORYTELLING’ WHICH WILL EXAMINE WHETHER THE OLD WAY OF TELLING STORIES — PARTICULARLY THOSE DELIVERED TO THE MILLIONS ON SCREEN, WITH A BEGINNING, A MIDDLE AND AN END — IS COMING TO AN END?

THE INFLUENCE OF SKIM CULTURE CAN BE SEEN IN THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL LINEAR NARRATIVE STORYLINES IN FILM AND FICTION. A NEW GENERATION OF ENTERTAINMENT IS BEING DEVELOPED WITH MULTIPLE SIMULTANEOUS PLOT LINES AND ENDINGS.


Filtered World

MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE WWW BROADENS THEIR WORLD BUT FEW REALLY UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF INVISIBLE ALGORITHMS ON QUALITY OF THEIR WEB EXPERIENCE.

THESE IMPOSED FILTERS INHERENTLY PLAY TO WHAT THE ALGORITHM THINKS YOU WILL LIKE MOST, MEANING THAT THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEARCH ‘OUT OF THE BOX’ OR FIND NEW SOURCES OF INFORMATION BECOMES NARROWER.

US POLITICAL ACTIVIST ELI PARSER HAS COINED THE PHRASE ‘FILTER BUBBLES’ TO DESCRIBE THE PHENOMENON.


Death of Objectivity

IS MORE BECOMING LESS?

THE FACT THAT WE HAVE ACCESS TO SO MUCH INFORMATION MEANS WE HAVE TO RELY ON COLLECTIVE BODIES (WIKIPEDIA, GOOGLE) TO PROCESS AND COLLATE THE INFORMATION. THE RESULT IS THAT THE RANGE OF OPTIONS AND OPINIONS ARE ACTUALLY REDUCED TO AN AGGREGATE OF THE MOST POPULAR.

SOME PEOPLE ARGUE THAT THIS COLLECTIVE OR HIVE MIND IS ELIMINATING THE UNIQUE OR INDIVIDUAL VOICE AND IS LEADING TO MISINFORMATION ON AN EVER GREATER SCALE , CORRUPTION, DUMBING DOWN AND MOB RULE. ARE WE LOSING THE ABILITY AND THE DESIRE TO SEE THE WIDER PICTURE?


Jack of All Trades – Master of None

THE 21ST HAS WITNESSED A HUGE RISE IN THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR. FEW PEOPLE CAN CLAIM TO BE REAL EXPERTS IN A (WIKI) WORLD WHERE EVERYONE’S POINT OF VIEW IS VALID AND THERE IS A ‘HOW TO’ VIDEO ON YOU TUBE TO ALMOST EVERYTHING.

WE ARE TOO FOCUSED ON THE SOLUTION OR DESTINATION THAT WE FORGET ABOUT THE PROCESS OR SKILL.

WE ARE BECOMING OVERLY RELIANT ON TECHNOLOGY TO DO THINGS FOR US THAT WE ARE IN DANGER OF FORGETTING HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS EFFECTIVELY OURSELVES.


The Illusion of Connection

WHILE TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING US MORE CONNECTED, PEOPLE ARE NOW QUESTIONING THE QUALITY OF THOSE CONNECTIONS.

IN A WORLD OF INCREASINGLY ‘THIN’ RELATIONSHIPS, PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR QUALITY CONNECTIONS THEY CAN TRUST

“Call it relationship inflation. Nominally, you have a lot more relationships — but in reality, few, if any, are actually valuable. Just as currency inflation debases money, so social inflation debases relationships. The very word "relationship" is being cheapened. It used to mean someone you could count on. Today, it means someone you can swap bits with.” Umar Haque. Harvard Business Review, [4]


Implications


Info Snacking

THE CONTINUING RISE OF SKIM CULTURE WILL SEE AN INCREASING DEMAND FOR INFO NUGGETS AND CULTURE DIGESTS TO FULFILL PEOPLES DESIRE TO CONSUME MORE AND MORE INFORMATION.

INFORMATION HAS EVOLVED FROM SOMETHING WE GATHER FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES, DIGEST AND FORM OUR OWN OPINIONS TO SOMETHING TRANSIENT THAT WE CONSUME QUICKLY, USE AS CURRENCY AND THEN PASS ON OR FORGET AT THE CLICK OF A MOUSE.

APPLICATIONS LIKE TWEETDECK FEED MULTIPLE TWITTER ACCOUNTS INTO ONE PLACE PROVIDING A CONSTANTLY UPDATED DAILY STREAM OF INFORMATION, WHICH IS OFTEN MORE ABOUT NOVELTY AND QUANTITY THAN QUALITY.


Appeal of the Random `

THE MORE WE ARE FORCED TO RELY ON A LIMITED NUMBER OF ONLINE SOURCES AND DIGESTS THE MORE PEOPLE WILL VALUE AND CRAVE ORIGINALITY AND RANDOMNESS.

FROM THE SUCCESS OF CHATROULETTE TO THE LAUNCH OF NESTLE-ROWNTREE’S ‘RANDOMS’, THERE IS GROWING APPRECIATION FOR RANDOM DISCOVERIES AND OBSCURE PRODUCTS.


Pop Up World + Limited Edition Extreme `

IF ITS NOT NEW ITS NOT INTERESTING.

WE WILL CONTINUE TO SEE A RISE OF POP-UP RETAIL & ENTERTAINMENT CATERING TO INCREASINGLY SHORT ATTENTION SPANS.

EXPECT THE CONCEPT TO INFILTRATE MORE CATEGORIES AND SECTORS OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS


App World / ‘How to’ guides

WITH FEW PEOPLE ARE PREPARED TO SPEND A LIFETIME LEARNING A SINGLE SKILL (THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT)

EVERYONE WANTS THE SHORT CUT, THE CHEAT, THE QUICK WAY – NO ONE BELIEVES THEY HAVE THE TIME TO LEARN ANYTHING THE LONG WAY.


Towards 4D Storytelling

THE NEXT GENERATION OF STORYTELLING IS BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN ENTERTAINMENT AND COMMUNICATION.

MANY OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND COMMUNICATION CONCEPTS ARE BASED AROUND MANY SMALL PIECES OR MULTILAYERED MESSAGES WHICH USERS NEED TO DECODE INTO TO UNDERSTAND THE STORY.

EXAMPLES LIKE THE NINE INCH NAILS – YEAR ZERO OR THE LAUNCH OF BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT, DEMONSTRATE THE POTENTIAL ON THIS KIND OF STORYTELLING.

http://www.42entertainment.com/yearzero/


New Value of Skill & Craft `

PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO VALUE SKILL, CRAFT, AND THE JOURNEY – BECAUSE IT IS RARE AND VALUABLE AND BECAUSE IT RUNS COUNTER TO THE DOMINANT CULTURE.

LUXURY BRANDS ARE INCREASINGLY RACHETING UP THEIR CRAFT VALUES AS WAY OF COMMUNICATION THEIR PREMIUM QUALITY AND STATUS.


1. Mathew Moore, Stress of Modern Life Cuts Attention Spans to five Minutes, Telegraph, Nov 28, 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3522781/Stress-of-modern-life-cuts-attention-spans-to-five-minutes.html

2. Nicolas Carr, Is The Internet Making Us Stoopid, The Atlantic Magazine, July/Aug 2008 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

3. James Kent, Your Personal Memory Device, March 10, 2010, H+ magazine http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/neuro/your-personal-memory-device-you-could-have-one-today

4. Umar Haque, The Social Media Bubble, March 23, 2010 , Havard Business Review. http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/ http://www.instantecg.org/ http://www.tweetdeck.com/ http://icloud.com/en http://chatroulette.com/ http://hipstery.com http://www.rowntrees-randoms.co.uk// http://www.marmite.com/ http://www.vitaminwater.com/ http://www.42entertainment.com/yearzero/ http://www.gucci.com/uk/campaign/forever-now/


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Counsel: Skim Culture