Monday, April 2, 2018

The Full Monty: Oh the Humanity – April 2, 2018


Social media didn't create the behavior we see online – it amplified it; the devices will be listening; your face is next; major upgrade for Waymo autonomous vehicles by 2020; brand marketing challenges in 2018; leaders in digital transformation; learning from America's most hated companies; the next Walmart acquisition; Facebook shuts down third party ad targeting; Snapchat lays off sales staff; TV advertising suffers at the hands of Netflix; Pandora and Spotify battle it out for ad dollars; two more data breaches; why APIs matter with unlocking data; how to become exceptionally charming; and more in the Oh the Humanity edition of The Full Monty from Brain+Trust Partners for the week of April 2, 2018.



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Schedule
Next week's edition may be a bit delayed, a bit light, or possibly off, due to holiday schedules.





Top Stories

A controversial memo written by Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth memo – admittedly written to provoke a response – revealed the extent to which Facebook’s leadership understood the social risks inherent in the platform.
"We connect people. Period. That’s why all the work we do in growth is justified."
But here's the thing: humans weren't meant to be connected on a global scale. The entire history of humanity – recorded and unrecorded – reflects that. Tribes, clans, and countries have warred for years. The disparity between cultures, morals, ideals, priorities and more have consistently put differing people at odds with one another. Social media didn't create that. In fact, it magnified it.

In the New York Times, Kevin Roose wrote, "there's something is wrong with social media," as he tried to make a case that the platforms are at fault, but that's not really the case. There's something wrong with humans.

In the 1990s, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar introduced a theory that there is a cognitive limit to the number of people with whom we can maintain stable social relationships. That number – Dunbar's number – is widely accepted to be 150. Stable social relationships.

Think about that for a moment. How many contacts to you have on Facebook? On Twitter? On LinkedIn? In your company? Technology has pushed us past the capacity to effectively maintain relationships. And what we see online, amid endless commenting, replying, and the rest is society run amok: trolls, abuse, anger, and other negative displays of emotion that are tied to the relative anonymity and seemingly dehumanization that a social account can provide.

Is it any wonder then that young adults are growing tired of constant social connectivity? This is why private messaging and smaller group interaction online are taking hold. It's also why people respond well to hand-written notes, personalization, and local experiences. It's human nature to want to feel like you matter and that you stand out from the crowd – that you're more than a number or statistic.

Yes, people fundamentally want to be connected. But they don't want to be connected with 2 billion other people. Or even 800 people. They want connections that matter, on a scale that matters.

And it's incumbent upon platform providers to take that into account.




Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous

The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / MACHINE LEARNING

AUTONOMOUS / MOBILITY

BLOCKCHAIN

 


Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy

Industry developments and trends, including advertising & marketing, journalism, customer experience, content, and influencer relations.

STRATEGY / MARKETING / CONTENT

JOURNALISM / COMMUNICATIONS / REPUTATION



Retail Apocalypse

Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is  is undergoing a historical metamorphosis. 


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Platforms 

News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.

TWITTER

FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP

ALPHABET / GOOGLE / YOUTUBE

SNAP / SNAPCHAT




Media

The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.

VIDEO

AUDIO

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Regulatory / Security 

Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.

SECURITY / HACKING

    ON-DEMAND ECONOMY



    Measurement / Analytics / Data

    The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.

    Mental Nourishment

    Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.



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    Top image credit: The Course of the Empire - The Arcadian or Pastoral State by Thomas Cole (public domain)

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