Social Hallucinations

Generation M and the Conflict of Generations

The situation, most of you will recall from the young years. You come back home very late. You  open the door quietly, so as not to cause noise, because you know everyone in the house is probably sleeping. You sneak slowly inside, creeping like a cat. You don't want to wake anyone, just head directly to bed to hide your too late arrival. But your efforts fail - there is always someone waiting for you. The conflict of generations - round one. Parents are angry cause they worried and feel deeply responsible for you and expect you to play by their rules and you are tired and think this is the storm in a glass of water cause you are grown up enough to decide yourself and do what you want - your independence from parents is crucial for you.

Each society has its own culture, a different era and different generations like every family. Every new generation is different and poses some other values, has other interests and what to emphasize and rationalize their otherness. The conflict of generations is as old as humans existed. Such conflicts seem to be an inevitable necessity. Only when two cultures / generations clash, their interdependence and fierce fighting can lead to the creation of something new, revelatory and riveting. Development as the result of conflict. Well, conflict doesn't need to have the negative staining. The secret lies in how we do play the rounds in the match between generations. How clever we are to use the old's wisdom to build something new.

Umair Haque writes "Dear Old People Who Run the World, my generation would like to break up with you." Every era has its own goals and tend to forget about yesterday's dreams, but trampling on the previous generations altars will not bring any good. I agree with Umair Haque that we need to "create an authentically, sustainably shared prosperity". We need to do instead of talk. But manifestos and breaking up will not take us there. In my humble opinion, it is interdependence along with fierce fighting and learning from the past success and fails that will bring us to the new set of values and allow to make a difference and move forward.

It is irrevocable, that everything is transient and the light of the young stars who just won over the old ones will be turned off later on in the curse of history as the new generations arrive. We need solid foundation anchored in culture and cores values to make a difference. Development. Otherwise we build house of cards. Every time the new winds blow, house falls down and the new generations come and build the new houses of cards, over and over again. In the result we never learn from the past and seem to start from the scratch.

The new generations like to rebel but overthrowing the old and replacing it with new manifestos doesn't guarantee the success. We can't cut off our heritage that shaped us and the society we are living. Not everything sucked what old people created as long as the new generation turned out to despise greed and crave for the new authentic and sustainable reality - we haven't been created in vacuum. The Generation M is the natural result of the collapse of the systems and economies that is happening in front of our eyes but it can't bury the past. It needs to learn from it. Generation M can't burn down the old monuments, it would be revolution and those usually lead to decapitations in the first place. Generation M needs to analyze the past, learn, blend and act, act smarter as it has the potential and tools to do so. After all, Generation M is a necessary reality, as if we don't introduce new trends, if we don't have ideals, and don't discover the new experiences, our world would be wishy washy and dull gray ... we would be stuck...

Photo by Pensiero

TicTac Micha Rocks Again

TicTac Micha is back. He didn't stop to entertain the world after the great performance in Copenhagen. The great response from all over the world, the lots of fan emails showed that TicTac Micha is great and there is the need for more.
So he is back with the World tour. The first stop was in Malmö, Sweden where he rocked at the midsummer party!


and here is his first performance from Copenhagen - watch TicTac Micha video here.

Stay tuned for more updated from Micha's tour by visiting his website. :-)

Back to Blogging

It's a long time since I've been here and wrote anything. It may look like I've abandoned my Social Hallucinations. Only spammers seemed to enjoy my absence, the less I wrote, the more spam comments and trackbacks they posted here. It's almost like hyenas that sensed that I didn't care. I did care but suddenly life struck me with its dose of suffering, serious problems to take care of and significant decision to be taken. I needed to prioritize. There hasn't been enough time for everything. With my fierce nature of jumping into projects and putting all my heart into them, it wasn't easy to find balance and put some things, like blogging and twittering on hold. It gives a perspective and fresh look. The less time I spent on twitter the less updated I was and unread posts in RSS feed piled up. What I've discovered was how much pollution I was exposed to. 3000 unread posts, maybe 100 worth of reading, thousands of tweets each day, 95% crap, social media guru-shmuru bullshit all day long, self-promotion, mutual masturbation of experts supporting and RT one another. I've realized I was trapped in the hunt of information, in the unfulfilled need of being on and up-to-date all the time. Why? Glittering lure of the new social web where there is little social but majority of information being pushed via various pipes. I took a break, looked at the blue sky and I realized I needed to clean up. So here I am at the beginning of my summer break ready to clean up the information clutter I've created around myself. I am ready to cut down and balance the digital life. And I am looking forward to get back following and having interesting conversations with some great people I've met in cyberspace, writing down my "social hallucinations”, getting wiser and just having fun. I do start it with reading paper book of Hugh "Ignore Everybody". Have a great summer! See you around :-)

Come Together

We may never diminish the powerful role of emulation for our behavior. This funny video shows how powerful emulation is in connecting people in spontaneous ways. Music and a guy who felt like dancing - it is a must see for all people working with communication. It's not about reaching people, it is about giving them something to copy.

Found at Asi's blog

Social(istic) Media or The Rise of the New Capitalism?

From now and then, there are voices talking about the digital media and the possibilities they bring - the driving force behind the new socialism era. But the question is whether the possibilities created by the digital media make socialism possible, or whether what we see is the rise of the new capitalism.

Image via Wikipedia

Socialism (latin societas - community) is the ambiguous term, referring to attempts to reduce social inequality and the spread of social services, treatment or management of social control through state institutions, local government, corporation or cooperative). What's common for various types of socialism is partial or total rejection of  the idea of capitalist free market, the restriction of private property and promotion of the idea of social justice. The aim was to build a socialistic society without poverty, where market forces are not the primary mechanism for distribution of wealth and where the functioning of society is based on common ownership, mutual cooperation and altruism. Beautiful idea but never proved to work (or fail - as it is not compatible with human nature). We are herd animals, but every herd needs the leader and clearly defined roles to ensure the proper functioning and survival of the group.

The whole problem with socialism is that the idea of socialism looks good on paper:

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts in the cowshed with other cows. You have to look after all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

Image by publicenergy via Flickr

Then you have the real socialism (which I experienced and would never recommend to anyone as one of the most humiliating systems to an individual and humanity):

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts in the cowshed with other cows that is taken care of by a former poultry farmer. You have to deal with the chickens, which the government took away from the farmers who are in charge of cowsheds. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as law allows, not as much as you need.

Third option is the national socialism - total exploitation, mean capitalism in disguise:

You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to care for them and sells you the milk with the flag state.

Sharing, cooperation and collaboration that are characteristic for the social media aren't quite working in the socialism, because there are always institutions watching and controlling the sharing or collaboration and trying to regulate those with laws. Maybe not a bad idea, but where regulations and power are involved, the inequalities usually emerge.
Of course there are also some positive sides in socialism, because it focuses on the common good but I can't see its chances to thrive in the world where people value their privacy and right to property. We are too independent and focused on our own success and own profits, driven by our needs. The value is YOU. Youniverse & Meritocracy are what drives the digital media evolution.

What we observe today is the rise of the new networked capitalism with intellect as the form of social capital that increases with use and the new digital opportunities are facilitators that drive the intellect growth. The value of the corporations in the new capitalism era - cognitive capitalism - comes from their ability to create new communication tools (Google), connect people (Facebook, Twitter), etc. Personal drivers as taste, creativity plays a huge role in the production process (Nike ID, Aston Martin). The property rights in relation to intellectual property also dramatically change (Napster).

In the industrial capitalism machines sucked workers in, depersonalized and automatized work, today computers / software sucked our knowledge, mashed it up and customized it getting it available and usable / reusable at every click. The question is not longer how much you produce but how much you manage to seed. The more you seed the more growth you create. What justify the existence and enhances the power of our ideas are their ability to spread and inseminate other minds (self-promotion happens to be quite effective insemination technique when used right) - twitter, blogs etc. being the tools helping on the way. It means social media has nothing to do with socialism except first 6 letters, they are the new capitalistic means of production and seeding. The question whether they contribute to the common wealth or satisfy egoistic needs and ambitions, I will leave open for now...

Image by diankarl*www.diankarlina.com* via Flickr

Sources:

Capitalisme cognitif (Le):nouvelle grande transformation, Moulier Boutang Yann

The New Socialism: Global Collectivist Society Is Coming Online, Wired

World Map of Social Networks

The very fresh visualization of the social networks across the world (June 2009). Denmark and the rest of Scandinavian region are definitely dominated by Facebook users, as the most of the European countries. However I think it is interesting some countries in Europe didn't adapt Facebook as much. Are the cultural differences, language barrier, usability ...or something completely different.

 

What should we do next? - Design Strategy

"The key to winning is achieving the resonance between what's meaningful for people and what's profitable for company"

People should be at the heart of everything you do.
Interesting and inspiring video on Continuum's approach to and beliefs about design strategy.

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

Via Paul Isakson

Are you the new jumbo shrimp?

Image via Wikipedia

"People heading up social media initiatives with almost zero online footprint is the new jumbo shrimp" (David Armano)

The way we work with social media needs to be professionalized. The more serious and results driven approach is needed. Social media aren't about easy solution that you can put on your marketing & media plan and check it as "done". Facebook pages driven by "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" strategy using the available place and attention to talk about the mere product can't be the standard for communication with people via social media. It is like placing wings on the car in order to create the new type of flying vehicle.

It ain't going to work. There are no quick copy&paste solutions. If you are looking for "cheap and easy way to push your message", social media shouldn't be your choice.

"Social media is like a pair of shorts. Hip. Cool. But not suited for all occasions ;)" (@benkunz)

It may be social media aren't for you cause you are not ready.
If you want to work with social, start with listening and understanding who your people (aka consumers) are, what do they like, need, what drives them (I keep on repeating myself over and over again, but drivers behind human behavior are the key to creating meaningful and effective communication) and what you can do for them to satisfy their needs & fuel their motivations. Then find out what's your goal, what do you want to achieve. What is your success criteria, your ROI and how are you going to measure it. And finally how the social media fit with the rest of your brand strategy (social media aren't stand alone)? Do you communicate towards the common goals via mainstream media and social media?
Don't be too quick to create Facebook pages and Twitter accounts without ever considering how and why are you going to use them.  There is the need to cut the crap about the successful Facebook cases (usually produced by people who call themselves social media experts):

XXX:  "we have great Facebook case!
YYY: "What case? Can you tell me more about it?"
XXX: "Yes, we have 1500 fans! It is great!"
YYY: "Sounds great! What were your objectives?"
XXX: "Er, er...what do you mean, we have 1500 fans!!"

You can't measure the success without knowing what you wanted to achieve. It is like deciding to take a part in the marathon, getting the t-shirt with number, meeting at the start and never start running. Making up your mind to run, doesn't make you a runner. It is about training and commitment.

We need to stop thinking about social media as silos otherwise we produce just spam. Nobody wants to be spammed. We need more long-term social and sustainable ideas that will make a difference for people out there and then also for you and your brand.
I made myself a couple social media mistakes but I never called them "great cases", I learned from them and gained deeper understanding of how to act out there where social norms and people rule.
You doesn't need to get it right from the start. It may take a few tests, some failures but with a right dose of dedication, right insights and truly social approach and ideas, you will make it. Amen.

Weekend Awesomeness

It is an awesome video giving you the exceptional experience of the sky. I simply love it! Turn the lights off so we can experience the real beauty of the sky.

Timescapes Timelapse: Learning to Fly from Tom @ Timescapes on Vimeo.

Read more on the Timescapes website

Us Now

"An important and provocative film that people who believe in democracy need to watch"
- Don Tapscott (Wikinomics)

Us Now is a documentary movie which follows the fate of Ebbsfleet United, a football club owned and run by its fans; Zopa, a bank in which everyone is the manager; and Couch Surfing, a vast online network whose members share their homes with strangers.

Us Now from Banyak Films on Vimeo.

Groups Aren't Always Good at Taking Decisions

Image via Wikipedia

And here is why:

"Groups tend to spend most of their time discussing the information shared by members, which is therefore redundant, rather than discussing information known only to one or a minority of members. This is important because those groups that do share unique information tend to make better decisions.  ... Ironically, ... groups that talked more tended to share less unique information."





Read more about the meta-analysis of 72 studies, involving 4,795 groups and over 17,000 individuals

It is very interesting in relation to focus groups and diverse forms of works where any kind of information is shared or decisions should be taken. Such behavior and tendency to focus on the widely shared informaiton can lead to serious bias of conclusions and decisions taken.

The Marketing Capability: The Future is Digital

"In order for our brand to be relevant in the future, we gotta live digitally... with our communication and the products we sell. And the brands that figure this out are the brands that will succeed in the future."

From the past to the future Best Buy CMO Barry Judge tells the story of how Best Buy's Marketing Capability talks (and listens) to its customers.

Is Talk Cheap?

Image via Wikipedia

According to a recent research of Shyam Gopinath, Jacquelyn Thomas and Lakshman Krishnamurthi, there is a measurable connection between what is being said about a product in online posts and real-time customer behavior. Research showed that if you ask people what’s most important to them in evaluating a product, they say, ‘What other people like me say about it.’ Meaning that that a relatively small group of people in online communities can have a substantial influence on purchase decisions. What is crucial for brands is to track the conversations happening online, as understanding people's attitudes towards your products give you the chance to react accordingly and implement necessary changes. It makes online conversations to be your focus group on steroids, wisdom of the crowds delivering you valuable inisghts that can fuel your product strategies.

“An Internet-armed consumer can become your greatest asset or your worst nightmare.”

Read more here on Kellogg Insight website

Is Web 2.0 Fragmented?

We all remeber the picture that showed how fragmented Web 2.0 we are living in. Plenty of start-ups, companies, tools, applications, communities - all designed for people. The picture gave many headache, how on earth one could deal and reach to people through so many channels, how to decide which is better and which will survive as the hippest and most popular platform users decided to choose.

3 years passed and the picture changed. Some companies suffered from the natural death, some were aquired and died. Suddenly the world of Web 2.0 doesn't seem so complex as Web 2.0 is like everything else the subject of the laws of nature.

A pink cross means that the company is dead now.

Green circles mark companies that got acquired.

A cross and circle mark companies that were acquired but still closed shop.

Two greens circles means that the company was acquired twice in the same period.

via Meish

Photo credit Meg Picard& Stabilo Boss

The 50 Greatest Movie Monologues - Inspirational

There are days when I like to talk a lot and end up having long monologues but compared to those guys I'm just a quiet girl. 50 greatest movie monologues are fantastic and inspirational. It is a must watch. You can read about the monologues and watch them here The 50 Greatest Movie Monologues

One of my favorite is from The Great Dictator by unforgettable Charlie Chaplin

"Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness."
Amen!