The media's addiction to social media is getting out of hand. Each media competes to maximize attention to their products, but almost everyone is doing it wrong. It's time for a moment of enlightenment: We need to slow down.
And no, you are not too busy to read this, now or later.
We, the media consumers, are addicted to a fast-paced media environment. But just like a drug dealer high on her own crystal meth, media companies have also became obsessed with real-time and addicted with social.
notes in his well-thought-out essay that the problem with media's social media addiction is over-reliance, obsession and over-dependency of social networks. He writes that the media has forgotten what journalism is about, they cannot see beyond their immediate social bubble (not everyone is in Twitter), the pace in the media is too fast, there is a feeling of loss of control and the competition is too fierce.
I believe that the last three points Kanalley makes are actually symptoms of the same disease. Further, I believe that over-reliance, obsession and over-dependency of social networks are also symptoms of the same disease.
The disease? A psychological disorder called the Media Burnout.
What is the Media Burnout?
A famous Finnish advertising slogan from the 90s said: I want to be everywhere, with everyone, all the time. This is a sentiment of the Internet era.
We are connected. With everyone. All the time.
Under these conditions, there is only one limited resource in the mediasphere.
Time. Attention.
Every company is competing to maximize attention to their products. And I have recently realized that almost everyone is doing it wrong.
As one of the most famous Finnish copywriters once said to me: "A newspaper does not compete only with other newspapers. It also competes against the circus." All media competes against the other ways we can spent our time.
Attention is the raw material for any kind of profit in the media business.
Thus, it is no wonder that each media is so obsessed with being the first to tweet about an event or at least to be the second to circulate a happening. The outcome is the incredible harsh competition and pace, followed by the feeling of loss of control and information overflow.
The first step is to admit that there is a problem.
Do you recognize these symptoms of media burnout in the media?
- The feeling that it's the responsibility of the media to tell every single detail about everything that is happening.
- A sense of urgency and the need to tell everyone how busy one is because of symptom 1.
- The feeling of failing to meet impossible goals, and the anxiety that follows.
The anxiety, then, leads to a short attention span, 140-character stories, inability to see the big picture and email management strategies from hell.
I first thought there is no cure to these symptoms. The thought-provoking, sense-making, reasonable journalism would be forgotten because that is not the battleground where the profits are made.
Then I realized that is not completely true. There just might be a cure.
How can we cure the Media Burnout?
I recently encountered a marvelous phenomenon called the Slow Web Movement.
The Slow Web is to web what slow food is to fast food.
The Slow Web is timely, not real-time, and it has rhythm instead of randomness. This made me think… Why is practically every online media company trying to fight over consumer time when consumers are in their most busy phase of their day: connected, reachable, anxious and very likely unable to concentrate?
As I mentioned, the competition is about attention. But it is not about attention everywhere. By everyone. All the time. Is the time spent with a piece of content on Sunday morning less valuable than time spent Monday evening?
Why not differentiate a media product by consumption time or context? "A newspaper does not compete only against other newspapers. It also competes against the circus."
The real-time competition about attention can be won by creating something more timely. Instapaper, also mentioned in the Jack Cheng's Slow Web essay, is a great example. Instapaper turns content that has to be consumed right after the click to timeless objects, which the reader can access in the moment of awareness and peace.
From real-time to timely. From fast to slow. The slow content gets, for sure, more attention.
Think about this: You are participating in a 3000-meter track race. Everyone is running as fast as one can but no one is significantly faster than the other. The catch: the winner of the competition is the one who gets the most attention.
What should you do?
Slow down.
Slow down.
No, Slow down. Really.
I don't know who holds the world record for the Cooper test, but I do know that there is a rock band vocalist in Finland who once ran 4 meters during the 12 minutes, moving all the time.
So it seems that Media Burnout is cured in the same way as any burnout. Take a deep breath. Slow down. Chill out.
Then make all those wonderful things you thought you didn't have time to do. Just do them one by one.
Remember: the nicest aspect of time is that for the time being, it gives a new second for every second spent.
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