In today’s world, trends change so fast. Fashion, music, makeup, slang, memes, even morals. What trend is hot this week? Is James Charles still canceled or should I buy his Morphe pallet while it’s still 50% off? Why is ‘OK Boomer’ trending on twitter? Where did this video of Paul Rudd eating wings come from? Who won what at E!’s People’s Choice Award? Did Drake really get booed off stage at Camp Flog Naw?
The internet to some is just a tool. Used for miscellaneous time-wasting or work-related monotony. Google this, email that. But, for some, the internet is everything.
September 15, 1997. Does it seem like a rather insignificant day? It was only about 11 months before I was born. It was the day everything changed, and we didn’t even realize it. Originally called by the name ‘BackRub,’ this was the day our beloved, and life-changing search engine began.
*Google has entered the chat*
Despite being 21 years old, I do remember a time before cell phones and laptops, before bitcoin and Reddit, before #likes and fake news. When children actually played outside and Webkinz were about as close as I got to online addiction. But times change, and they change fast.
Every day is like a race, a who-can-be-the-most-woke contest. Media outlets work around the clock just to make sure they break the story first. If it’s a day old, sorry honey, it isn’t relevant anymore. So how can we keep up? And most importantly, do we have to?
That’s where the word addiction comes in. Addiction - ‘the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or activity. ‘ Social Media is in fact, one of the world’s most prominent addictions, and the scariest part - most people don’t even realize it.
Let’s put that in perspective, shall we? The average person spends around 2 hours a day on some sort of social media platform. bout 5 years of their life is spent staring at a screen, not including TV. Do you know how much you could get done in 5 years? You could run more than 10,000 marathons or travel to the moon and back 32 different times (MediaKix).
So what is instant gratification? And why does it keep us wanting more? To start, we are currently living in the generation of low self-esteem. Affecting both millennials and Gen-Z’ers, this drop in confidence can be directly connected to social media. We are bombarded by the images of skinny, beautiful, tan models who flood our Instagram feeds every day. videos full of partying and laughter consume most of what Youtube is known as today (thanks vloggers), and negativity dominates the news (thanks politics). So if social media is making us feel so low, how can we get so much satisfaction out of it at the same time?
Dopamine. Yes, you know it. The chemical that makes us happy. Usually associated with food, exercise, love, sex, gambling, drugs, give us the same sense of gratification that we get from a mere notification.
*Alex liked your photo”
“Kristin commented on your post”
“Tori shared a Tik Tok with you”
“Ideaison got a new follower”
“You have a new match on Tinder”
What can we do about it? If you are like me, and you love to be connected with the world, always refreshing your twitter explore page and scrolling the #foryoupage section of TikTok; Do not fear, there is hope. Take a deep breath, meditate on what brings you happiness outside of your phone. Friends? Family? Music? Hiking? Yoga?
Try to limit yourself. Check your screen time, set up do-not-disturb hours on your phone. Focus on what is around you, not what is on your screen. And most importantly, talk to people. Real-life connections will never outweigh online ones, so live in the moment. Live in real-life.
So what does living in real-life mean? Does that mean cutting out every form of technology in your life? Absolutely not. The goal is to find a perfect balance. When it comes to brands and technology, how can one find that equilibrium? Experiences. When most people think of experiences, they have flashbacks of thoughts about different places they have traveled to, shows they have seen, and mountains they have summited. We know that experiences make impressionable memories in people’s brains, so how can a brand do the same?
That is the key. For a brand to make a personal connection with someone. An advertisement has such a limited impact. It may grasp your attention for a second, or even a minute if it is good enough, but an experience. That is where the magic happens. Messaging is only as powerful as its most engaging words. In the digital age, a time obsessed with instant gratification, everything is simply a click away. n the experiential world, you are encouraged to take a breath, look around you, and soak in what your senses are feeling.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, but about the stories you tell.” -Seth Godin