Times They Are A-Changin
It’s obvious, with the advancement of the computer, the way we communicate and the way we think is also adapting to the current times. It’s interesting to think about the people who run our world today and what the people of the future will be like. I have been thinking about this aspect in marketing and our society. Today people my age are constantly socializing. We are constantly plugged-in, communicating with all the technology we have been provided with, whether this is with our friends, family and acquaintances. It is known that humans are social creatures.
We want to hit the level of love and belongingness in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. But, with the changing time, this niche in communication in our lives is, I think, growing. More importantly, it is growing in an interesting and sometimes different way. When we look at kids compared to adults, I think we could say that this difference is definitely present.
I read this week in an article from Economist.com that, “[a] psychologist at MIT who studies the nexus between people and gadgets, believes that the tools of mobility are leading to ‘the emergence of a new type of person’. In the distant, landline-dominated past, she says, people thought: ‘I have a feeling so I want to make a call.’ Young people today, including Ms. Turkle’s teenage daughter, seem to be thinking instead: ‘I want to have a feeling, so I need to make a call’.” So as advertisers we should want to understand and possibly intersect this. What could be more appropriate than social marketing?
I have been thinking about how influential this is compared to other forms of advertisement. If the people of tomorrow are communicating differently and in different forms we should try to understand the importance in it and cater to it. If the people of tomorrow are thinking and using sentences that are structured differently we should try to understand this. And if advertising continues, don’t you think social marketing will eventually take a bigger piece of the pie in advertising? What do you think?
By: Matt Hite
Community Development Intern
Yovia.com
Article Reference: http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10950487
