Interesting article about "Survival of the Fastest." It also discusses another trend, or maybe just a fad, the Slow Movement. Me, I try to live by an old Biblical passage -- "And the first shall be last and the last shall be first." I figure by being last as often as possible here, I'll be first where it really counts!
Here are some highlights from the article (emphasis mine):
She calls it "Survival of the Fastest." Living at the speed of technology may not be killing us, but Cheryl Swanson says it's forcing us to morph in unnatural ways."The result of this self-willed evolution is all the weird technology diseases that we're getting - sleep deprivation, stress-related illnesses, early senility and [attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder], which is the status hallmark disease of this decade," she says. "It's considered cool if you can't focus." (See, I've always been a trendsetter! I've been a diagnosed adult with ADHD for years! DBP)
American consumers are bombarded with 1,500 to 3,000 ads a day. In the past four years, Swanson says, more information has been added to the global memory bank than in the entire history of mankind prior to 2000.
We have to process factoids at 400 times the rate of our Renaissance ancestors.
As a survival tactic, most of us instantly discard 85 percent of the information that comes our way, she says.
"The biggest message to marketers is to be empathetic and understand that consumers are editing out most of what they see," Swanson said. "Putting really wordy messages out there won't work anymore."
Link: The Sun News | 01/27/2005 | Consumers overloaded with input, adviser says.
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