Hooked on technology: Behaviour Shifts
Do you remember your best friends phone number? How about their birthday? Within this article we have uncovered some of the key takeaways and insights from our last event, ‘SparkUp: Digital Detox’, where we explored the shifts in human behavior thanks to modern technology. You may have already seen the highlights video here too.
Our physical emotions & expressions are blending into virtual ones
People today are relying heavily on social media, which is making online chat more human. This evolution is blurring the line between physical and virtual expressions, so much that it can now feel like we are sharing a ‘moment’ with someone online through emoticons & emojis.
The evolvement of gestures is something that Bloom & Wild, the UK’s leading online florist finds really interesting. They carry out customer research to the design of their products and services so that it adapts to the customers behavior and lifestyle. Sara Gordon, Head of Brand & Creative at Bloom & Wild shared with us that “many of our customers tell us that they prefer to send a text message rather than calling to say “happy birthday” to loved ones”. To deal with this shift, their business have invested into making the flower buying process as easy as sending a text message. Each step of the customer journey has been designed around the customer from convenient packaging fitting through the mailbox, to making the payment process simple and fast with Apple Pay integration.
“many of our customers tell us that they prefer to send a text message rather than calling to say “happy birthday” to loved ones” Bloom & Wild
Technology is becoming a replacement for our memory
As technology is evolving, our cognitive memory is deteriorating, causing us to rely more on our gadgets and virtual intelligence to assist us.
‘Living in the moment’ is more personal and not to mention more convenient than trying to capture it through a lens, so why do we reach for our smartphones at a ‘special’ time, or a critical moment? Are we looking to share our experiences with others? Or is it because we don’t trust our memories?
For this reason GoPro is such a successful brand. As a business they have driven their innovation through the human need for convenience and quality. Their product doesn’t require you to stop what you’re doing to capture the moment in high definition, and their marketing strategy encourages you to share your experiences with the world.
Personalities are evolving online
The interesting, amazing and also slightly terrifying thing about technology is that you can change and develop your personality online actually easier than in real life. As individuals we now have so many online conversation styles through dating websites, messenger platforms like Slack & social networks like Twitter, that humans and are finding it more difficult to establish their true voice.
There was once a thing called a ‘Social Media Strategy’ to manage your voice across all social communications. But now it is crucial to have a strategy for each channel, and is no longer acceptable to broadcast your message. As an individual, and as a brand you need to establish your tone of voice in each of your chosen channels, and keep it relevant to your audience and their interests.
The beauty of a channel like Twitter is that it allows the most introverted of people to have an extrovert opinion and persona when online, yet put them in a room full of extroverts and their voice will likely get lost. At the same time it’s making it harder for humans to have a physical conversation with someone new, in person.
