Please don’t read this blog post

Please stop what you’re doing now, and go and do something more useful. More creative. Whatever that is for you.

Well done if you stopped.

If you are still reading do you ever wonder what makes it so difficult to stop? There seems to be something about the human being that makes us want to consume words – many of us seem to find it hard not to keep on pressing forward, seeking to find out what’s in the next sentence.

Perhaps this is what fuels our addiction to the (streaming) media?

It’s not just words of course. Moving images, and sound too. We watch. We listen. We consume.

In the light of some research on the use of the iPad in the home that our Insight practice is cooking up, I wondered whether we’re getting something wrong.

It took me years to give up watching TV. I still find it hard to pass a newspaper stand. And the constant chitter-chatter of the radio presenter still has an attraction even on a slow news day.

And what have I done? I’ve replaced those streams with others: Twitter, Facebook, email.

Of course, I celebrate the idea that we’ve at least loosened Big Media’s unique hold on our attention.

For a couple of years I worked in a company trying to change the way source information was delivered to consumers.

And, lo and behold, fifteen years later, a really popular app for the iPad is Flipboard – which allows the user to build their own newspaper out of their own Twitter and Facebook feeds – the totally personalised and customised newspaper dreamt of by media futurists for more than 30 years. And with content that may – or may not – be produced by a media professional; content direct from the source.

But what monster have we created? With the iPad, and the commodity-priced tablets that will follow, a way for anyone, including corporations of course, to reach directly into our homes. A way for anyone’s voice – even mine – to reach you.

And there’s the rub. What are we giving up by allowing our valuable time, our valuable headspace to be used up by the sound and fury of others voices?

Isn’t there value too in a bit of peace, a bit of quiet reflection. In staring into space. Listening to our own voices? Why the rush? What are we running away from? What are we scared of?

I know that in this new world we can create and produce too – I’m writing this post aren’t I?

But that is my problem; yours is that you are reading it.

So stop entertaining yourself to death. Why not go and sit quietly? Eat a peach? Ride a bike? And enjoy.

Pete wrote this on 28.07.10 – 1 comment
It's filed in the Behaviour, Blogging, Marketing, User generated content, facebook, media, streaming, twitter box