Social Hallucinations

2010 - Another chance for doing meaningful things

31st December, the end of another year. 2009. The time of reflection. Something is ending, something is beginning. It's like we are getting another chance, so we make resolutions, promises we never keep...

My 2009 resolution was Make More from Less and I was very concerned about human greed, exploitation and consumption. I entered 2009 full of optimism and faith into humanity, change and the upcoming dominance of Good. Unfortunately some events moved my focus a bit. The new experiences that influenced me significantly and shaped me forever. 

I've said goodbye to one of the most important people in my life - the wisest, the most loving and the most beautiful woman I've known - my grandmother.

At the same time I faced my dad getting diagnosed cancer...so much suffering at the same time made my thoughts wander around the meaning of my life and things that are really important. Suddenly nothing else than my family mattered and things I used to be busy with, seemed so silly. I just definitively realized that life is fragile and while we chase the surrogates of it, we may lose people, things, moments that really matter. Suddenly Make More from Less got a new meaning for me: making more meaningful experiences and moments from the little time we have. I've  kept on repeating in my head the last words my grandmother said to me: "It's not scary to die when you know you spend your life on making things happen and when you are surrounded by such fantastic people. So go out there, find out what matters most to you and make things happen" 

And now when I am sitting here on 31st December, having my family around, hearing them laughing and looking at my grandmother's picture I think it's not about resolutions (those are rarely kept), but about defining what matters for you, your life and acting upon it. It is not so far away what I wrote precisely one year ago, there is just more meaning to it...It's still viable and we need to work more on Doing Meaningful Things to our lives, to our work, to the world. 

 

Happy New Year to you all! 

Don't make resolutions, just think about what matters to you and make it happen. It will not be easy but it will make us better in the end :)

"Radical Abundance: How We Get Past "Free"

Douglas Rushkoff on "Radical Abundance: How We Get Past "Free" and Learn to Exchange Value Again" 

We know so much about the supply chain and so little about 'the removal chain'

Trash Track is an awesome project that visualizes individual traces of trash objects. Everyday objects at some point in their life cycle are declared of no more use by their owners and cross the fine line between being a proudly owned utility item and a trash object. 

How the system works?

 
 

Data can be so beautiful and useful. 

via InfluxInsight

How Does Advertising Work?

Which advertiser wouldn't know how to influence people and change their behavior or preferences. There are no clear simple rules. Advertising is the people business and people factor is what makes it unpredictable. However the years of experimentation, testing and measuring allow us to draw out a few clear conclusions, which I stumbled upon on Faris blog.

The Journal of Advertising research run a special issue that concerned the advertising and the ways it works. Here is the one of papers by Les Binet and Peter Fields Empirical Generalizations about Advertising Campaign Success (thanks to Faris)

Download Empirical Generalizations about Advertising Campaign Success

One of the most interesting statements is about the vague role of rational arguments in advertising: 

 "The most effective advertisements of all are those with little or no rational content." 

(Les Binet/Peter Field)

Emotions, needs, urges working on subconscious level is what drives human behavior and we need to tap into it, but the problem is that often we rely on consumers opinions (focus groups and other types of research) that are mainly driven by post-rationalization. 

Lot of great material, theories and things to take into consideration when planning the next campaigns. You can learn a lot but it is important to keep in mind that:

"No single theory or group of theories can explain it all, because advertisements work in such different ways. There is no point in looking for an overall theory."

(Nevill Darby, quoted in Advertising Frameworks, Giep Franzen, Brand New Brand Thinking) 

Every diamond has a story

Diamonds and bloody story of Africa

Conflict Diamonds - African Diamond Council
by mediafun

Did we become 21st century slaves?

"A society that becomes expert in tools and ignorant of reasons is taking the decision of self-enslavement. Curiosity by itself is harmless. It should be curiosity that generates action, that moves us, what finally makes us creative, which humanizes us." (cristian saracco)

Provoking thought. 

21st century slaves, slaves of bit of information that will never be turn into worthy ideas and actions cause no one ever took time to explore it. Scan, check, move on. Exposed to many impulses, endless stream of information and meaningless life-casting, we have no time to explore if we want to keep updated and follow. I actually believe that it's curiosity that stops us on the surface, cause we are curious what will be posted next. We know so many things but nothing really in particular and often one can doubt whether what we have just read was worthy or just bullshit. It resonates actually with H. Rheingold's thoughts on the importance of digital literacy. Giving the deeper thought, giving yourself time to comprehend and evolve, not just re-tweet. We have so much choice that disarms us and we have difficulties handling opt-out and we are continuously give partial attention to everything and in fact learning nothing except facts...

Internet is good because Internet is people and their incredible minds but you have to hit the right stream and have a courage to dive in. Some are exploring the deep blue, others float on the surface.I can't stop asking myself whether is it any different from times before 21st century? or are we really living in the intellectual wasteland turning us into slactivists?

What do you think?

The importance of digital literacy

Howard Rheingold on the importance the literacy in participation and sharing is what will decide whether Internet will be useful tool or garbage. 

The Internet as Playground and Factory - Howard Rheingold from Voices from The Internet as Play on Vimeo.