The only person with universal mindshare is Donald Trump. However, as he tweets incessantly and lets Covid-19 run rampant some have tuned him out. But just as he's sliding, he makes news with his statements re the Postal Service.
If you're not making news, you're not top of mind, you might as well not exist. It's not "What have you done for me lately?," it's more like "What did you do for me this morning?"
Everybody has a voice. That does not mean every voice will be heard.
The internet makes people feel powerful.
The pre-internet powerful are not as powerful as they think. Twenty-plus years of the internet have resulted in the hoi polloi believing the stars, those in the news, are no different from them. Everybody's reachable online. Hold your head too high and you'll be brought right down.
People want to participate. This is the failure of Quibi. Passivity is for old folks, or for long form when you're worn out.
Physical sports just don't mean as much to the younger generation as they do to the older generation. Physical sports require physical skills, you're limited by biology and they're slow whereas online sports are very fast and anybody can triumph if they put in enough practice time. This is a sea change, it's not only about baseball. Other than the NBA, which is intertwined with the culture, every other sport is at risk.
You make up your own truth.
People are either suspicious or gullible, you decide which tribe you're a member of, either you believe nothing or everything.
It's a software world. Hardware is fungible. Apple is the equivalent of Louis Vuitton, expensive, aspirational products for the elite and the wannabes. Everybody else, the masses, is satisfied with their PC and Android.
Privacy is not as big a deal as decision-makers believe it is, but it is rising in importance in the consciousness of the younger generation, which has been used to coughing up all its info all the time, and in a world where there's a camera on every street corner and cookies follow you around the internet is there really any privacy left?
Masses may believe untruths. Whether it be QAnon or the ability to rekindle manufacturing in America.
There's much more dissension and unrest on the street than institutions realize. Never forget, the internet has transformed almost every entity other than the government, which is light years behind. People cannot understand how there is gridlock in Washington when updates are downloading to their smartphones seemingly daily.
Everyone believes they're entitled to a family even though oftentimes economics prevent them from supporting that family.
If you stick your head out it will be chopped off, whether you're right or wrong, it doesn't matter.
Is run by TV and social media. TV wins because it's about story and there's so much money that creators have multiple opportunities, but if you believe everybody will sign up for every service, you're dreaming. Bundling is in your future. Not the cable of yore, but something more akin to Amazon Prime or the new Apple subscription bundle.
The only people unconcerned with opportunity are those who have it. While the wealthy and connected are fighting over the loaf, the rest of the country is fighting over crumbs, and when you go to bed hungry you're unhappy.
The younger generation is concerned about climate change, all the things the boomers have put on the back burner. They're already sacrificing, economically, unlike the boomers they're willing to sacrifice for the good of the country, for the good of all.
No one has faith in anybody but themselves.
People pay the fees, on tickets, on hotel rooms, but disaffection is brewing.
Everybody hates the airlines.
It's about the money. Anybody who prices one cent cheaper than someone else wins.
Comparison shopping rules. Every store is right next to another online. It's all about price and trust.
Little will be different when Covid-19 recedes. We learned this after 9/11, the only thing that changed was it was harder to get on an airplane and into an office building. People will congregate, people will shake hands, and a limited number of movie theatres will open for event films.
Direct to video will be supplanted by direct to streaming service, whether it be Netflix or Disney or... VOD releases, where you have to pay for one film, just don't feel enough like an event.
The only thing we have in common is our language. And our bodily needs. There is no cohesiveness, the internet blew it apart. Old school players think we live in a vertical world but the truth is it's horizontal.
You express your identity via brands, they're more trustworthy than people, certainly politicians, oftentimes entertainers.
Even though the country has shrunk, people have less of an idea what is happening other than where they live. Travel is expensive and the Great American Road Trip went the way of the Great American Novel. Now, you fly.
Luddites control mainstream media. They're anti-computers, anti-screen time, they're living in future shock and they believe technology is bad, meanwhile the younger generation ignores them. The generation gap is as wide as it was in the sixties.
Technology...you either get it or you don't. Either you can troubleshoot a problem or you can't. Either you know how to work the remote or you don't. This is a huge dividing line, more than internet access itself in underserved communities. D.C. can't be concerned with hackers because the elected don't understand technology.
Nothing is secure, everything can be broken. But this does not mean you should not employ security tools. The harder it is to hack, the less interested the hackers are.
Celebrity gossip has been debased, it's entertainment for the lower classes, the educated truly don't care what minor celebrities they're mostly unaware of are doing.
If you're rich you show it. No one can hold back.
Social media stars are fungible. We need them, we just don't need any specific one.
Virality is hard to achieve and can only go so far.
Is divided between those who will sacrifice for the future and those who won't. Those who graduate from college and those who don't. If you're not willing to forgo momentary pleasures, your future is forever hobbled.
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