ImmerseMe

This weekend I was taking pictures at a family birthday party. One photo in particular turned out especially well. I showed the photo to my sister-in-law on the screen of my digital camera. Immediately, she said "Be sure to put that on Facebook!" She didn't say "Be sure to make a copy of that photo for me!" or "That's frame worthy!". She just wanted it online, because that is where our photos exist now. (Much to the dismay of my mother-in-law, who has no social media presence whatsoever and feels like we're hiding all of these great family photos from her!)

We just think of things differently than we used to. I read an article this last week called "How Google Impacts Our Memory."

From the article:

"A new study has demonstrated that Internet technologies, especially search engines, have changed the way we remember information: We now focus on remembering information sources rather than the information itself." Source: Search Engine Watch

Rather than remembering what an article said, we remember where we found it and how to get back to it. 

It really is fascinating to see how the internet has changed our thought process and the way we live our lives. I'm the first to admit that there have been several times that I've experienced something funny or memorable and immediately started to write a blog entry about it in my mind. The experience becomes less about how much fun I had and more about how I'm going to write about it on my blog. 

We get our information online. We share our emotions online. We communicate our political opinons online. We tell other people that their political opinions are WRONG online. We share family photos, family drama, and relationship statuses. 

My point is this: as people trying to convey a message to our clients, our audience, our followers.... we must communicate differently than we did 10 years ago. Everyone has "Internet Brain". We must speak their language. 

Source: XKCD