The emerging ‘new passivity’ in media
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 by Ed CastilloIn the past, marketing communications have largely interrupted otherwise valuable media-based experiences (e.g., that Chia Pet ad in the 80’s which interrupted your enjoyment of Jack Tripper’s comedic fumblings).
The emerging media paradigm, however, casts marketing communications AS valuable experiences in their own right (think Office Max’s ‘Elf Yourself’).
Add to this the idea that we’ve clearly moved from passivity to activity in our interactions with media over the last two decades (i.e., from passive receivers in a 3-4 network world, to active RSS-feed-establishing/YouTube-content-creating mavens).
(This move, incidentally, is consistent with my generation’s fascination with technology. TiVo, instant messaging, iPods; while fascinating to children of the 80’s and earlier, are largely unremarkable to younger consumers, who see technology as a given [the way we see toasters]…They seem only to ‘notice’ technlogy when it fails them.)
The upshot? I believe that we are headed for a NEW PASSIVITY in media; with the Googles/iLikes of the world anticipating what we want to consume (based, clearly, on our searches and tech-facilitated interactions with people, places and things) and serving it up for us in easy, non-intrusive, easily-configured contexts.
In the future, we’ll turn it on (whatever ‘it’ is) and it will just deliver loads of customized content (plus contextual ads and/or sponsorships, of course).
From passivity, to activity…to the ‘new passivity’.
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