Nonlinear culture.
Like everyone else, I am currently reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains. While I haven’t read enough to have a point-of-view on his main thesis, I am intrigued by the idea that we are losing our ability to read long-form content (like books) and to follow a linear argument. Carr’s view is that we can’t focus. This is something that has been echoed by a number of other researchers.
While it’s quite possible that this is a sign of the decline of civilization and the end of the world, I wonder if a simpler, and more prosaic explanation is that we are bored.
Christian recently pointed out that discussion threads on Fark and Slashdot follow an incomprehensible arc to those who don’t understand the culture of these communities. While conversations (IRL) have historically been constructed around a central theme that gets built upon and enhanced, discussions in many online communities are purposefully non-linear. The idea is not to extend a logical theme, but rather to create tangents or unexpected and surprising forks. Micro conversations will often form, skilled conversationalists will inject obscure cultural references and, in general, attempts to steer the thread into unexpected places are cheered.
In fact, I think that’s the point. I don’t think this happens because the participants can’t follow or focus upon the logical thread, but rather it’s because we know all too well where the logic leads. More importantly, we all know that everyone else knows where the logic leads, which sort of eliminates the need for the conversation to follow the logical path. Therefore, we are working together to create something entirely new and unexpected to all parties.
These are subtle yet important changes in the way we interact with one another, as well as the expectations for how others will interact with us. It’s all very meta and post-postmodern (which of course makes me a huge fan!), but more to the point it’s all quite fundamental and basic which means that these are dynamics that affect many areas of culture and society and by extension marketing and branding.
I wrote about Being New a little while back, and I think this is one of the basic qualities of being new. In contrast, I think linearity, logic and to some extent, story are qualities of Being Old. What do you think?