The way I shop brands hasn’t changed too drastically in the last decade — even as a kid, I was as brand-loyal as I am today. Unless a brand betrays me, I like to stick with what I know will be good. That being said, I am more knowledgable about brands today than I was in the past. For example, the messages that a certain clothing brand sends out the world is certainly on my radar, whereas young me would only have taken into consideration her personal opinions about a brand name. I suspect this is largely due to the rise of instagram, and my consequent following of some pretty major influencers, so-called “lifestyle bloggers”. Their enviable lifestyle, colored with tiny tags sporting clothing and accessory brand names, definitely raises awareness about which brands are today’s coolest.

I think that the most engaging digital marketing campaigns are the ones that aren’t immediately recognizable as advertisements. Brands do a good job of hiding under the influencer umbrella. Some of the instagram influencers I follow only tag sponsored posts in the location section, giving the “at a glance” effect that they are only promoting/tagging brands because they think the brand is cool. Am I engaged by this? Yes, in the sense that I might pause on a photo, think “that looks nice”, click on the brand and tuck away the knowledge that said brand might look nice on me too — for future shopping guidance. And I know that the only reason I so calmly accept these advertisements is because I don’t immediately recognize that I am being advertised to.

Luckily, I don’t believe that my social life relies on digital technology. I’ve met friends through social media, sure. I also supplement my friendships with social media interactions — on an hourly basis. Despite this, I know that my social life would still exist even if digital technology didn’t. Often times I make future plans with my friends when I see them in-person, and we would usually go to the same places and run into each other anyway, even if we couldn’t make plans using digital technology. We aren’t at the point yet where people rely entirely on social media to establish relationships, and this is a good thing. I think anyone could agree — while digital interactions can give you a sense of validation, they just don’t cut it. It’s human nature to value face-to-face moments and experiences with others over the digital option.

I do try to engage with others ‘online’ in the same or similar ways that I do ‘offline’. Sometimes I get a sense that I am really pushing the limits of digital interaction — having weightier conversations over snapchat doesn’t feel the same as having them over Skype, and it especially isn’t the same as conversing in-person would be. ‘Online’ really is that different . While it does provide a new way of communicating with people — sometimes preferable to in-person communication — ‘online’ can’t mimic the body language and signals that people would pick up on ‘offline’ (yet).