Social Hallucinations

Homo Skepticus?

2010-02-07T22:48:11+01:00

The couple of last years we've been sticking to mantra "people trust people like themselves" (Edelman Trust Barometer) to convince business establishment to jump into social media wagon, to understand better how people act and activate the power of WoM.

We've always trusted the circle of friends, so called significant others and their recommendatiosn mattered a lot us as the key influential factors. We've done this and will keep on doing this as anything else would break the social ties and lead us to alienation.

Edelman comes with the new 2010 results of the Trust barometer and something interesting happens - friends/peers as those whom we trust drop from 45% in 2008 to 25% in 2010.

It is quite natural the question about our skepticism and our ability to trust arise.

I don't think we trust less our friends and peers. I don't think we've become more skeptical. I just think we are in the phase where we rethink the word friend / peer. The word friend got stretched widely due to social networks. We call friends people we've never met in our lives and people we have no common history with. We do have hundreds of friends on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo...whatever you call it. The social networks devalued word friend. Anyone can be my friend today. It just costs one click and you have a new friend. But it ain't so easy and we are aware of that. We are aware that social networks bring also "virtual friends" we can't really trust because we simply don't know them, don't know their agenda and there is no really point of reference between our and their lives. Who are really those hundreds of people we follow on Twitter, we connect with on Facebook? We know the faces, we know the key facts we can find out from info tab and status updates. What really connects you with other people are common experiences...

Web revolutionized our lives for sure but there are still some barriers we need to overcome, like integrating online lives with offline lives. Meeting people we know online, exchanging offline experiences will be the way to create trust. Online relationships won't replace face to face time and sharing of real time experiences.

We still trust "people like us" but we are simply not sure whether Johns we follow on Twitter are really like us...

Photo by mek22

via AdAge

Unhappy Hipsters

2010-02-06T09:50:32+01:00

"He had a hard time distinguishing the relationship between needs, wants, and technology."

The latest blog found - sharp and witty - Unhappy hipsters - musings on sad and deprived of joy life of urbanites. Really good and worth to follow for good pictures and commentary on the modern life.

HT: Angus Whines

How Web Has Reshaped Our Lives

2010-02-06T09:30:13+01:00

The global brain, the endless flow of information, communication, work...Internet of the most revolutionary tools of these times.

I have been with Web with over 10 years now and it has major influence on the way I work, learn about things, get in touch with people and meet people. Making business, sharing knowledge is easy and wide accessible to those who are connected. Internet created the intellectual wealth.

The impact of Web on our lives and its importance for the world has made BBC to create TV program dedicated to this subject: How 20 years of Web reshaped our lives - The Virtual Revolution.

There is no doubt Web influences our lives. The biggest question is now how we are going to use it to improve and fix the world and enrich lives of those who are living on the suburbs of World Wide Web, beyond the reach.

via Influx

Meaningful Branded Content

2010-02-05T15:10:41+01:00

Amazing project from Red Bull Stratos. Breaking the barriers and exploration. Really WOW in terms of idea and doing something meaningful. The idea is incredible: they send skydiver and base jumper Felix Baumgartner to at least 120,000 feet above the earth and he will attempt a stratospheric free fall jump - the longest in the history of man - and hopefully will become the first human to break the speed of sound with his own body. It is so awesome!

"Red Bull Stratos will attempt to make history and deliver valuable learnings for medical and scientific advancement that will aid the exploration of space in future years."

Making a difference and making something extraordinary! I am so in love in this project.

The Good Stuff

2010-02-02T22:22:30+01:00

When conversations matter

via MisEntropy

Social connection

2010-01-28T22:13:15+01:00

Social experts are keep on multiplying. Clients asking more for social media in briefs. Agencies race for making frameworks, models, products to sell to the clients...but everyone seems to forget one essential thing:

"You need a social profile to engage with other people and the world - but you need to be doing other stuff, constantly, to feed it. To be successful in social spaces, you need to be active in the world." (Faris)

Neither people nor brands exist in social vaccum. What makes us social is our stories we tell, our experiences we share. Social doesn't fit frameworks and models cause it is unpredictable, cause it is people and interactions among them. Ideas, interesting stories, shared experiences are what connects people....not Facebook fan pages.

The 6 types of ideas

2010-01-27T21:04:36+01:00

via Tom Fisburne

Good morning Alice

2010-01-26T08:08:30+01:00

Great idea promotion for the upcoming movie Alice in Wonderland but not so cool executed after all...Shame but I am still looking forward to seeing the movie cause it looks magic :)

Give People Something to Copy

2010-01-25T22:12:55+01:00

...and you will be able to trigger the change of behavior. Old and funny video demonstrating the power of group influence on individuals. In fact, there is nothing to laugh at but adopt this elevator psychology into communication efforts.

Hat tip to Simon

Visualize People's Thoughts

2010-01-25T21:53:51+01:00

It is such a great tool to play around with - Web Seer - and visualize what's going on in people's minds when they google and explore differences and similitude, stereotypes, ideas by comparing 'Google Suggest' results. Plenty of interesting insights to dig for. I love how info-graphics democratizes data and make them more understanding-friendly.

"We try harder"

2010-01-17T21:56:16+01:00

Excellent

via Stan Lee

Do We Really Have to Meet?

2010-01-04T08:09:16+01:00

Meetings are nice but are all they really necessary? It is very valid question on Monday morning and calender full of meetings. Sitting in meetings is often a nice time - waster, break from work where you sit and...nothing really happens except of talking.

How to change the meeting culture and cut down the unproductive hours of just sitting and talking. Here are a few tips from Seth Godin

Understand that all problems are not the same. So why are your meetings? Does every issue deserve an hour? Why is there a default length?

Schedule meetings in increments of five minutes. Require that the meeting organizer have a truly great reason to need more than four increments of real-time face time.

Require preparation. Give people things to read or do before the meeting, and if they don't, kick them out.

Remove all the chairs from the conference room. I'm serious.

If someone is more than two minutes later than the last person to the meeting, they have to pay a fine of $10 to the coffee fund.

Bring an egg timer to the meeting. When it goes off, you're done. Not your fault, it's the timer's.

The organizer of the meeting is required to send a short email summary, with action items, to every attendee within ten minutes of the end of the meeting.

Create a public space (either a big piece of poster board or a simple online page) that allows attendees to rate meetings and their organizers on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of usefulness. Just a simple box where everyone can write a number. Watch what happens.

If you're not adding value to a meeting, leave. You can always read the summary later.

It is a good way to start the new year at work, the year that is about doing the meaningful things.

via Tom Fishburne

We shall not flag or fail. We shall slow down in the office, and on the roads.

2010-01-03T15:25:26+01:00

In times where politicians and different arts of gurus tell us we need to work harder, run faster and just give everything out of ourselves, The International Institute of Not Doing Much seems like an uplifting and fresh initiative. Running fast all the time will not bring the fruits we expect as we simply get tired and our performance will be weaken. Like every machine, humans need to take a break for servicing and refueling. On the website of The International Institute of Not Doing Much you can learn a lot about slowing down and not doing too much. What I liked the most is the advice to cultivate dreams not aspirations.

Here is 10 tips on how to slow down:

1. Drink a cup of tea, put your feet up and stare idly out of the window. Warning: Do not attempt this while driving.

2. Do one thing at a time. Remember multitasking is a moral weakness (except for women who have superior brain function.)

3. Do not be pushed into answering questions. A response is not the same as an answer. Ponder, take your time.

4. Learn our Slow Manifesto.

5. Yawn often. Medical studies have shown lots of things, and possibly that yawning may be good for you.

6. Spend more time in bed. You have a better chance of cultivating your dreams (not your aspirations.)

7. Read the slow stories.

8. Spend more time in the bathtub. (See letter from Major Smythe-Blunder.)

9. Practice doing nothing. (Yes this is the difficult one.)

10. Avoid too much seriousness. Laugh, because you're live on earth for a limited time only.

via Crackunit

The Obama Disconnect

2010-01-01T18:31:48+01:00

"...when two million people are in motion in favor of something, because they put themselves in motion, we know what that feels like. It's called a movement. It started to happen in 2007-08, and it hasn't happened since."

Micah L. Sifry on the Obama disconnect after election. very insightful analysis on political myth that hit reality and never turned out to be true.

How to Live Well in 2010

2010-01-01T11:40:33+01:00

This the source of good inspiration. No resolution. No predictions. Just the words of ancient Greek philosophers who inspire us to focus on what really counts.

My favorite advice is

Talk to a stranger. There is a source of knowledge and insight all around us, and yet we barely notice it’s there. It’s not Google. It’s the strangers with whom share our world. Socrates realized this, and so started to ask people questions as he walked the streets of Athens – what is friendship, what is happiness, what is love? It was an extraordinary thing to do, and led to nothing less than the invention of philosophy.

(via Johnnie Moore)