Last musings on 2013

Last rant in 2013 but I will try to leave with some positive thoughts. I was musing lately on two things.

One is the ongoing illusion people allow to be maintained. I refer to the great ‘fairy’ tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Anderson. The moral for me wasn’t that the tailors duped the Emperor into believing he had a new suit on – it was that the people in the crowd so wanted to follow what everyone was saying they all went along with it. Given someone who’s profession is in Marketing & Advertising should not say we must stop the illusion. But what bothers me is the ongoing need to follow and convince oneself that you are seeing something great just because others say so. And when the illusion starts to crumble be mad at those who created it rather than at ourselves.

Why is this childlike need to be liked and popular such a motivator in modern times? 

Second musing was yesterday when I saw an interview with some pre-teens. Question ‘Do you think Amira is good’ (she’s fantastic by the way). Answer was she must be she’s had over 13 million views on Youtube. Again this does not say someone is good it simply says 13 million clicks. Any marketer worth their salt should tell you that clicks don’t mean a lot. How many people actually watched the video and shared ? But next to this false manner of rating ‘good’ they completely missed that this 9 year old has already done about 5.000 of her 10.000 hours. She had underlying talent that was nurtured in an environment to help her do this.

In 2014 I hope that true content, truth and hard work will reign.

Happy New Year.

What did 2013 teach us for 2014?

Continuing the theme of looking back in order to move forward what was 2013?

Well firstly it was the year in which apparently many people tried to make guacamole with mangos, making us shudder for the future of the human race.

Other than that and a 9 year old who can sing opera like an angel I think that 2013 into 2014 will be the moment in which we rediscovered our privacy

2013, the year of twitter psycho breakdowns, twitter bitch-slapping, the rise of Instagram and Snapchat. The year of revelations that big brother really is watching you. After putting our lives online I think you will see the trend in 2014 of people locking down their online privacy. We will suddenly use those privacy settings on Facebook, think about what we post or publicize and who we are sharing it with. Or is that whom?

It will seem disconnected – we yearn for a more personalized approach from retailers but we want out privacy back. It’s not only about what we’re sharing but who with.

2013

As we look back on 2013 with the long lists of lists and year in reviews I also like to look back to see if I have learned something in the past year. We as human beings should be growing and striving to be better. So learning something is always a good thing. Change should be embraced.

In 2013 I learned mostly that it is ok to ask for help…and to receive it. When you fall down its ok to let others know that and to accept their sympathy. That helps lift you up. We should value the people who care about us and rate our network in terms of people we can really turn to.

 

Happy holidays and a safe, healthy and prosperous 2014.