Change in Times: We’re Connected and Empowered

Change in Times: We’re Connected and Empowered.

We can look at life and technology and feel that we are going through change at an unprecedented pace. Generations before us probably felt the same way about change and advancement of technology in their lives.

I contend though that not since the invention of the Printing Press or the Industrial Revolution has the world experienced anything like we have and are going through right now.  Every aspect of every minute of life has changed for all of us and these changes are happening fast!

Possibly it is childhood perspective but growing up outside of Buffalo, NY in the 60′s and 70′s life used to quieter and slower paced. My 4 brothers and I lived The Wonder Years in a neighborhood with big families and a hundred kids.  That was our social network! Mom and Dad raised us to work.  I remember my brother Brian and I taking our push mower, rakes and shovels up and down the block and we started to make some real money! Nice old Mrs. Williamson was so happy with the job we did that she spoke with a couple of other neighbors and got us the same gig mowing lawns.  We thought: …”wow, this is great!” That was our first experience with word of mouth marketing.  Our dance card was full but a desperate parent called Mom and asked if I could babysit.  I had never babysat.  Boys didn’t babysit.  Mom told me I should take the job.  She said the kids would be asleep.  I thought it was pretty cool that I could sit there and watch The Beverly Hillbillies on TV and get paid.  On the way out the door I heard Mrs Bush say these words: “help yourself to anything you want to eat Eddie”.  “Hmmm, ….did she say anything?”  I was always hungry and the prospect of eating anybody else’s food was appealing.  I found a cherry pie on the refrigerator and had a couple of pieces.  Ok, …maybe I had four pieces but she did say anything so I kind of think she overreacted when she came back and kept saying: “I can’t believe you ate tomorrow’s desert!” Needless to say, I didn’t get hired back.  This was my starring role in the water cooler conversation.  Mrs. Williamson was happy and told a couple of people and we got more work.  Mrs. Bush was pissed, didn’t hire me back and over time told half the damn block.  Today, a pissed off customer doesn’t tell ten people.  They can and do tell thousands with a click!

Back then there were the three network channels and a couple of others. There was the morning newspaper and the evening newspaper (we delivered both) and the news station on AM radio.  News, messaging, entertainment, …everything was delivered to us in a regimented fashion and was controlled by Journalists, PR Firms and Agencies.  Whoever invented the TV Tray Table was brilliant.  They knew, they knew that is when news was delivered to us and when America was sitting down to eat dinner.  Back then, the average consumer was exposed to maybe a 1,000 marketing messages a month.

Today, we are all content creators and that is a huge difference!  Now we are pumping out insane amounts of content and we’re overwhelmed with marketing messages.  And, …our world is now connected because when the dot com era hit we made a huge investment in fiber optic cable and that made all of us neighbors overnight. The six degrees of separation are now thought to be three.  Today we are empowered and using that power. Today, Mrs. Williamson could’ve hooked us up mowing lawns many streets over and Mrs. Bush’s message would have either shut me down from any other babysitting jobs or at the very least killed any future offers to “help yourself to anything you want to eat Eddie!”