Why is Discovery So Much More Valuable Than Interruption?
Monday, December 15, 2008
This should be a stupid question. Yet, every year brands waste hundreds of millions of dollars on interruptions, on banners, pop-ups, and roadblocks (they actually call them roadblocks!).
The experience of making a discovery creates a personal bond between the person and the thing they've discovered. They adopt a feeling of ownership. ("I found it; this is mine now.") The thing that they've discovered becomes a part of who they are. The degree to which any of these transformations occur is tied directly to how remarkable the discovery is to the person who makes it.
Back in the winter of 2005, a friend of mine took me to a photography exhibit at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. The exhibit happened to be a retrospective of the work of an American photographer named Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Meatyard (awesome name, right?) lived in Kentucky and did most of his photography as a hobby during the 50's and 60's, while he worked professionally as an optometrist.
His work blew me away. I had never seen anything like it. It was bizarre, creepy at times, imaginative and inspiring at others, beautiful, quiet, mysterious. That day Ralph Eugene Meatyard become my favorite photographer. And since that day, his work means more to me than so much other photography I run into all the time.
If you want further evidence of how discoveries create a sense of ownership, pride, and loyalty, stop by the Undercurrent office some time. Listen to what happens when someone tells someone else about something they found on the internet without giving proper credit to the other person in the office who discovered it first. You might recognize the spirited protests, as one person shouts across the room at another to set the record straight. "I told him about that!" "I sent her that link yesterday!" "I saw that video like two weeks ago!"
This is why we love the internet. Blogs help us to make discoveries. Google helps us to make discoveries. Facebook and Twitter help us to make discoveries. The internet helps us to make discoveries. And discoveries make us feel good.
The internet has become an engine for discovery. And every day it is becoming more efficient in its ability to create new opportunities for discovery and to make those discoveries more personally relevant and compelling. If you're not playing this game, if you're still merely trying to create better interruptions, than pack up and go home.
The experience of making a discovery creates a personal bond between the person and the thing they've discovered. They adopt a feeling of ownership. ("I found it; this is mine now.") The thing that they've discovered becomes a part of who they are. The degree to which any of these transformations occur is tied directly to how remarkable the discovery is to the person who makes it.
Back in the winter of 2005, a friend of mine took me to a photography exhibit at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan. The exhibit happened to be a retrospective of the work of an American photographer named Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Meatyard (awesome name, right?) lived in Kentucky and did most of his photography as a hobby during the 50's and 60's, while he worked professionally as an optometrist.
His work blew me away. I had never seen anything like it. It was bizarre, creepy at times, imaginative and inspiring at others, beautiful, quiet, mysterious. That day Ralph Eugene Meatyard become my favorite photographer. And since that day, his work means more to me than so much other photography I run into all the time.
If you want further evidence of how discoveries create a sense of ownership, pride, and loyalty, stop by the Undercurrent office some time. Listen to what happens when someone tells someone else about something they found on the internet without giving proper credit to the other person in the office who discovered it first. You might recognize the spirited protests, as one person shouts across the room at another to set the record straight. "I told him about that!" "I sent her that link yesterday!" "I saw that video like two weeks ago!"
This is why we love the internet. Blogs help us to make discoveries. Google helps us to make discoveries. Facebook and Twitter help us to make discoveries. The internet helps us to make discoveries. And discoveries make us feel good.
The internet has become an engine for discovery. And every day it is becoming more efficient in its ability to create new opportunities for discovery and to make those discoveries more personally relevant and compelling. If you're not playing this game, if you're still merely trying to create better interruptions, than pack up and go home.
1 Comments:
I was actually thinking about this the other day. I got a little bored with the whole blogging thing, then I realized that I was sort of getting held captive by my feed reader. I just read mostly the same stuff everybody else read, mainly to keep up.
Then I cleaned out a bunch of feeds and starting making a new effort to discover, and suddenly it started feeling just as shiny and new as when I got involved in the first place.
Anyway, great post.
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