The Interactive Age

The metaphors we use for communication alter our perception of the world. They frame it in new ways—highlighting certain aspects of reality and masking others.

As the internet takes the mantle from television as our dominant form of public discourse, our metaphors for communication are shifting.

We’re leaving what Neil Postman once called the Age of Show Business and entering the Interactive Age.

It’s not about your message

I hate to say it, but it’s true. Marketers really like to talk about hav­ing a strong cen­tral mes­sage or pro­mot­ing “that one big idea” or some other such ter­mi­nol­ogy. The prob­lem is that after 60 years of adver­tis­ing, peo­ple see right through it. The gig is up. In the inter­ac­tive age, there are lots of mes­sages, and …

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Online Social Networks are Geographically Anchored

Reporting on a recent study, Richard Florida tells us that online social net­works actu­ally tie us even more closely to peo­ple within geo­graphic prox­im­ity: Their find­ings indi­cate that place and prox­im­ity con­tinue to mat­ter even in social media. Twitter doesn’t replace the net­works that exist in the real world—it rein­forces them and makes them stronger. …

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More about the New Literacy

Back in January, I wrote a post about the inter­ac­tive age ush­er­ing in a new age and new form of lit­er­acy: If tele­vi­sion rep­re­sents a shift to a new kind of Oral cul­ture, the inter­net rep­re­sents a new kind of Literacy. Sure, there’s video. Sure, there are games. Sure, there’s flickr. But at it’s root, …

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