I don’t want to search anymore, I want to discover!

I was born in 1985, which makes me a millennial by definition. It also makes me part of the biggest consumer group in history and the last generation that can tell stories about the good old days: pre-Tinder, Google Maps and Deliveroo. Back then you actually had to ask strangers for directions and find enough courage to talk to girls face to face. I feel like an old man saying this, but so much has changed since then!

Take music for instance. 20 years ago, I physically had to go to my local music store, make my way through hundreds of albums, to finally discover “Wu Tang Forever”. I would then blast the same songs for weeks on my Walkman cassette player which was the finest piece of tech back then. Today, I have access to millions of albums on my smartphone and don’t even have to search for my favourite artists anymore. Spotify’s algorithm gives me personalised recommendations based on my tastes and moods. Crazy right?

The way we consume information and search for inspiration, to ultimately make decisions, has dramatically changed over the years. This is mainly due to the evolution of technology and the rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. There are 3 points that highlight these changes:

1. We, millennials, don’t want to use thousands of Apps or webpages anymore; everything has to be centralised and easy to use. Since Facebook launched its “feed”, which has then since been copied by many others, information is now available in a single place which makes it a lot easier to navigate.
2. We don’t want tonnes of content anymore; we want relevant content; we want quality over quantity. This is now possible thanks to sophisticated algorithms that give recommendations based on tastes, interests, and previous browsing behaviours. For example, Netflix tells us which shows we are more likely to be interested in based on what we’ve previously watched — genius!
3. Finally, we want the entire experience to be fun and sociable. Today, when we read an interesting article on Medium for instance, we can share it via WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Messenger or Slack, and discuss it with our friends straight away.

But why is this important? Because a better browsing experience, with more personalised content and a social sharing aspect, means we don’t need to search anymore to discover new things. We just need to scroll down and it’s all there, in front of us. This is probably why I spend 3 hours a day on my phone: because it works, because it’s relevant, because it’s addictive.

Take Instagram for instance. I use the platform to follow my friends’ stories, get a quick self-esteem boost watching my number of likes go up when I post a picture, and to fight boredom while sitting on the toilet. But strangely, I also follow, engage, and trust people I actually don’t know in real life: the Influencers.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Influencers are creators who share content on Instagram and build communities around specific topics such as travel, fashion, fitness, or food. Influencers usually have a high number of followers and an established credibility.

The good thing for ordinary Instagram user like us, is that it’s up to us whether we follow an Influencer or not. We are the ones picking who we want to be inspired by. To us Instagram is a new way of finding inspiration, and Influencers help us discover new things and give us an alternative to searching.

Millennials don’t want to search anymore, they want to discover!

I love travelling and therefore follow a few travel Influencers on Instagram. Over the past few months I’ve seen several posts from Tulum, with its underwater caves and beautiful Caribbean beaches. Last night, I was in a bar with my friend, we talked about the cold weather and how nice it would be to catch some winter sun in January. He asked ”Where should we go? Asia? South America?”. Within seconds I’d pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and showed him pictures of Tulum. A minute later, I was checking flights on Skyscanner and so we booked two return tickets to Mexico. The entire process was faster than ordering a Gin & Tonic.

My mum can’t understand how it is possible to book an unexpected holiday on a smartphone sitting in a bar, but this is the way my generation consumes nowadays. We don’t want to spend hours searching anymore, we don’t have the time or the patience to do so. This is the difference between our generation and our parents’ generation. We want everything straight away. The way we consume today has to fit our lifestyles, it has to be fast and available on the move.

So with all the information flying around us all the time, I wonder why it is still so complicated and time consuming to find a good restaurant when on a weekend away in Lisbon, or a great bar in Amsterdam? Why do I still have to spend half an hour juggling with TripAdvisor, TimeOut, Google Maps, as well as half a dozen local blogs to finally step into a place I’m not even convinced is what I’m really looking for?

The same can be said about my own city. Why is it so hard to pick a good wine bar for a date night or a great place to eat in Soho? I know Soho well and there are about 100 different options but still, I’m often standing in the rain, wondering where to go. Why? Because the human brain is programmed that way. We tend to remember our 3–4 usual spots and keep going to the same old place because “it’s easy”. We all need a solution to find what we are looking for, when we are looking for it.

This is why we are creating the first city guide 100% curated by Influencers. From cafés and bars to art galleries and farmer’s markets, you can now discover all of Instagram’s best spots around you, wherever you are in the world, in next to no time.

Dotspot is launching soon and will be available in all main cities. Be one of the first lucky few to use Dotspot. Signup to our mailing list on www.dotspot.tech.