I just finished watching a PBS documentary titled "Generation Like" (GL), I highly recommend watching it if you haven't seen it already! GL looks at how teenagers today engage with social media and their evolving relationship with advertisers who compete for their attention.
GL tells the story of teens who are growing up in a world where social media is so intertwined with their lives that it is a fundamental part of their identity. They describe social media as a technology that empowers them, by allowing them to share their 'true' selves with other like minded people; getting personal validation through the number of 'likes' they can generate. Likes have evolved into a kind of social currency, and some teens are fortunate enough to have such a large network of like-minded followers that they are able to turn this into actual money. This is nothing new...we live in the age of YouTube, Twitter and Instagram celebrities - people who are famous because of the vast network of peers they are able amass based on shared interests. Given that teens these days spend so much of their time online and on social, this phenomenon of internet stardom is not ignored by marketers vying for their attention.
The teen demographic is an important one for most brands - fostering a sense of brand loyalty with teens gives businesses greater security in the future. Now that the way media is consumed has been transformed by social, businesses have to change how they engage with their target audience. On social media, both brands and consumers are competing for the social currency of likes. GL shows how this has evolved into a kind of symbiotic relationship between corporations and consumers (especially internet celebrities), giving both the opportunity to leverage their social network.
I have always been a bit hesitant when it comes to sharing online; even sharing things as seemingly inane as interests or likes. Sharing makes you vulnerable. You put yourself out there trying to connect with people, but that also means you can be scrutinized based on what you share. This is even more pronounced in networks such as Facebook, where you can be judged not only based on what you share, but what others may share about you (often without your consent). And as much as you would like to think this online identity is yours, it simply cannot be controlled as easily as your real life identity. Especially now that we are in the age of 'big data' analytics, it can be unsettling to think about all the things that can be done with the information we share. Is sharing really that empowering? The line between pursuit of passion and pursuit of validation is often blurred, and that's fine...we are all looking for validation in our own way. In fact, in writing here, I am attempting to pursue both: using this blog to post about things I find interesting, in hopes of connecting with like-minded people who find it interesting as well. But as much as I personally try to avoid having a social presence that reflects my 'true' (or rather complete) self, I am excited by the possibilities that can come from leveraging all of that data. Targeted marketing as shown in GL is only the beginning.
Thanks for reading!
Linked Content:
1. Frontline: Generation Like (IMDB)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3527758/
2. Frontline: Generation Like (YouTube)
http://youtu.be/1gmgXxB9QiA
3. Teens are spending more time consuming media, on mobile devices
http://www.washingtonpost.com/postlive/teens-are-spending-more-time-consuming-media-on-mobile-devices/2013/03/12/309bb242-8689-11e2-98a3-b3db6b9ac586_story.html
4. Oversharing on Social Media: Will We Never Learn?
http://www.brandwatch.com/2012/07/oversharing-on-social-media-will-we-never-learn/
5. We know what you are doing - A social media privacy experiment
http://weknowwhatyouredoing.com/
6. Kenneth Cukier: Big data is better data
http://www.ted.com/talks/kenneth_cukier_big_data_is_better_data
7. The true self? It's all in your head
http://neuroethicscanada.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/the-true-self-its-all-in-your-head/
8. Facebook's Unethical Experiment
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/06/facebook_unethical_experiment_it_made_news_feeds_happier_or_sadder_to_manipulate.html
