A while back we posted this. It was a short blog about the privacy furore on Facebook and whether this has any major long-term implications. Well apparently it does. Serious ones. This article is an interesting read about people deserting FB in their droves in the US. It goes on to highlight another crucial challenge facing the social media behemoth: the fatigue factor. The most exciting thing about the internet – and the most challenging aspect for an agency too – is the rapidity at which things change in the virtual world. Every day brings a new tweet or email with something to look at. And in among the keyboard cats and Sad Keanus, there’s a wealth of new social media initiatives. Diaspora is coming. We mentioned Social Seek a couple of posts back. There’s also Bongal, which aims to link you with people that you actually share interests with – rather than just the gigantic gallimaufry that Facebook has become. And what about you? Aren’t you just the teeniest bit bored with wasting your time looking at pictures of people you don’t know on holiday? Or reading that Bob has had a great weekend? It’s like being trapped at a school reunion with the person you never really liked the first time around. Virtual Purgatory. So although this is just one person’s private opinion from within Chemistry (one person that just happens to have the blog password) I would stick my neck out and predict that it won’t be long before we see FB enter a terminal decline.
Talking of which, here’s another interesting article about how people are receiving suggestions from FB about contacts they may wish to ‘reconnect with.’ Which is fine. Except when that person is dead. Doh!
It’s here. Now. Among us. What you’ll see here is a glimpse into a future that’s not just speculative, but is heading your way as we speak. Just think of the implications for advertising. If you want to see how the virtual world of data and the physical world are going to join together and make sweet love, pull up a chair and click play. (Clicking, ha, ha – that’s so 2010.)
This is an excerpt. Here’s the full version (11mins or so).
Watching the World Cup semi-final on BBC the other night and the commentator made a reference to how ‘we will all have seen Paul the Octopus’s prediction for tonight’s game.’ Displaying a rare touch of genuine wit, Mark Lawrenson replied, ‘I’m not sure everyone will have; some people have lives.’ Yet the fact remains that even football-haters will be aware of the clairvoyant cephalopod’s existence. Why? Could it be, perhaps, that we embrace strange stories about uncanny octopi and Jesus’s face being found in a cheese toastie because we’re starved of a little colour and surrealism in our everyday lives? So it’s not too big a leap to find a parallel with the Ad Industry. Of course, in its purist sense, Advertising should inform and give people reason to part with their hard-earned. Even more so in today’s chilly economic climate. But as Leo Burnett said: ‘I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.’ That’s why Advertising which entertains and informs tends to deliver the best results – whether you judge that in sales or simply people being more inclined to engage with your brand. It might sound obvious. But it’s worth reminding ourselves from time to time that our work should always add value and entertain. That doesn’t equate to unwarranted frivolity or gratuitousness. It doesn’t even mean that it should be funny. Just that a little sprinkling of something unexpected every now and then won’t do any harm at all. Maybe even a psychic octopus or two?
Phew. It’s hard work keeping up with all the mass of information coming our way digitally. So many blogs to read; tweets to pour over; images to look at. So here’s one of those digital innovations that collates everything into one handy site. It’s called Social Seek. You type in the subject you want to find out about. It then lists everything that’s happening in social media that relates to your search. It’ll give you blog posts about the subject, tweets, Flickr uploads etc. Worth investigating if you ever have time to go out and experience real-life socialising in-between all the virtual bonhomie. It does beg the question though: will we soon need a social media site that collates all the social media collating sites?
Books are a massive part of my life. So the advent of electronic books has caused me to experience more than a little consternation. Trying to imagine life without a book in the traditional sense is like trying to imagine life without a head. Impossible. Yet at the same time, it’s incredibly exciting – how cool and convenient it would be to carry around all the books you’ve ever read on one handy little electronic device. The main problem for developers of course, as traditionalists were keen to point out, is that an electronic book could never replicate the unique tactility of the printed version. Like a comfort blanket, you could cuddle up to it in bed and enjoy the leafy rustle as you eagerly turned the page (although if you’ve ever tried to read The Magus by John Fowles, you can forget the ‘eagerly’ part). But no. They were clever. e-Books now looked like the real thing too. Inexorably, the shadow of the executioner’s blade hovered ever closer to our dusty jacketed friend. But this week good old booky has been given a reprieve (albeit a temporary one). This report tested the book reading experience on the printed book, PC, iPad, and Kindle. The main conclusion was that ‘the iPad measured at 6.2% lower reading speed than the printed book, whereas the Kindle measured at 10.7% slower than print.’ All of which is great – faster is better when it comes to reading surely? Go Team Book! But more terrifying were the user comments at the end of the report: ‘Users felt that reading the printed book was more relaxing than using electronic devices. And they felt uncomfortable with the PC because it reminded them of work.’ Not that I’d ever read a book on a PC, but what an alarming thought. Reading is a method of escape. A gentle sojourn into your imagination that frees you from the cares of everyday life. Imagine if it felt like sitting down at your desk at 9am on a Monday! Also, relaxation is what makes reading so enjoyable – both mentally and physically. And one unarguable fact about the iPad is that it’s rather cumbersome, so reading in bed with it must be like snuggling up with a stone tablet. No matter. It can’t be long before we have a Terminator style iPad that morphs into whatever shape you want. So for now, feel free to wander down to your library, put on your smoking jacket, blow the dust from the cover of your favourite tome and settle into the chair in front of the hearth. And enjoy a moment of satisfaction as you know that you’ll be finishing ‘The Art of War’ much sooner than your Kindle-reading rivals.
