You must admit it is strange, in the here and now, that the lives of normal people with a streak of exhibitionism running through their veins should so captivate our lives with their inane blatherings on the meaning and purpose of hair extensions or coloured grouting.
Because in case you hadn’t realised it, this is the century of ME – from personalised Ipod’s and celebrity music selections to updating your blog. For the first time in the history of our still evolving planet and societies, tens of millions of consumers are pro-actively telling and showing each other, and you, what they're feeling and doing in the broadest sense of the word, and we can’t have enough of it. There is a blog created every second, the fastest-growing category, never mind video sites (vlogs), or podcasts. It’s never been easier to talk about yourself, your personal rants and likes/dislikes, to showing the world your latest digital pictures of your trek in the Himalayas, or the birth of your grandson. Recently, talking about births, a couple webcast the birth of their baby, for all too see – he became the youngest celebrity in the history of celebrities.
So how come this rise of the “ME” generation. Brands are now the single greatest gift that commerce has ever given to culture. Brands have become a shorthand for expressing ourselves. By mixing and matching Adidas shoes with Diesel jeans and Tommy Hilfiger shirts while we stay at W hotels, we’re saying to the world –look at me, I’m a successful architect, designer, actor, entrepreneur. Or the perfectly coiffed lady with the Hermes bag, Ralph Lauren suit coming out of the Ritz in London is also making a statement about who she is. Within six seconds we make a judgement call about someone we meet –so the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the places we stay say a lot about our aspirations. They’re our way of saying “I’ve arrived”, “I’m successful”. The art of validation and justification communicated through the outward trappings of material possessions. We are the brand and we are communicating who we are, what we do, how we do what we do and what we stand for – our ethos, just like a true brand should, only this time it’s about ME. And now with the convergence of digital technologies and the quantum leaps in available free memory space, our whole life is out there for all to see.
There is a method in all this madness. It’s human really, human beings (fuelled by a need for self-worth, validation, control, vanity, even immortality) love to collect and store possessions, memories, experiences, in order to create personal histories, mementoes of their lives, or just to keep track for practical reasons. And with the experience economy still gaining ground - with consumers more often favouring the intangible over the tangible -- collecting, storing and displaying experiences is ready for its big moment. So a giant avalanche of 'personal content' is being collected, and waiting to be stored to allow for ongoing trips down memory lane and more importantly, to share with the world, instantly. We want to connect, to share, to create, to show off and what you end up with is a completely new way of observing, of keeping a finger on the global pulse, a way to connect in a world increasingly separating itself from the reality of human connectedness in favour of online chat rooms, online dating, online shopping, and soon in a neighbourhood near you, online living.
Cashing (or should I say caching) in on this boom are the software and hardware providers.
SO we have Nokia with its Lifeblog service: software that automatically arranges all messages, images, notes, videos and sound clips that people capture with their mobile phones.
Microsoft has developed a wearable camera to capture every moment of every second, for those people who want to experiment with a life diary.
Google shifted the boundaries, offering 2 gigabytes of free online space, so you need never throw another email away. Other search engines have now caught on and are offering larger online space. Memory sticks, now available in 2 gigabytes (and this is only the beginning) is the new Asian fashion accessory: consumers can (and do!) wear their entire 'digital life files' around their neck, from music to movies to documents to photos to presentations. It's LIFE CACHING going mobile: with sticks, MP3 players and camera phones boasting increased storage capacities, functionality, and quality, consumers will soon be able to show, play and share their entire LIFE with whoever they want and whenever they want. And last but not least, let's not forget Apple's mega-popular iPod: the new one has 60 gig of storage space, which means even the biggest music fans will be able to forever build, store and carry their entire life collection of music and video and data. With photography, publishing, video, music, SMS, instant messaging, search, blogging, cell phones, email, memory sticks, there’s enough out there to store your life and communicate it to the world. And that’s what we are doing, in droves.
SO what does this all mean and how does it relate to us as growing, evolving human beings.
In the cut and thrust world of ‘business means business’, where the work/life balance is skewed heavily in the wrong direction, are we trying to reach out and touch someone, anyone, in order to hear, see or be heard? Or are we alienating ourselves even further into our own created world of video games and online diaries?
Or is it just another manifestation of man’s incredible need to innovate, to create, to invent?.
As Andy Warhol predicted with "15 minutes of fame", hundreds of millions of individuals are craving immortality, or at least some public attention. Whether it’s blogging, participating in Big Brother, having a character in a novel named after you, or adorning your car with personalised license plates, the masses want their names out there and they want to be seen, preferably by the whole planet. This obsession of normal people wanting to leave ‘something’ behind in print, voice or image, preferably in the public domain, points to a singular need to be heard, understood or listened to. We have reached the point of no return where the ability to share and reach out and touch someone is giving way to us wanting to be heard and seen by everyone, right here, right now.
The proliferation of mass branding has allowed us to use the medium of brands to brand ourselves and communicate Brand “ME” to the world.
Anyway, enough about ME, what do you think about me?
Anthony Ryman is Managing Director of grow, a successful Doha-based creative advertising and design agency focused on brands. Acknowledgment to trendwatching site and human observation.
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