1. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Skim Culture: The Triumph
Of Surface over Substance

2. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Information overload and our growing
online dependence is changing the way
we think about, process and retain
information….

3. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Shorcut Society
WITH SO MANY MEDIUMS DELIVERING INFORMATION ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, PEOPLE
ARE ADAPTING BY DEVELOPING NEW EDITING AND RETENTION BEHAVIORS.
THIS HAS IMPLICATIONS NOT ONLY, FOR HOW WE CONSUME INFORMATION AND
MEDIA, BUT ALSO MORE IMPORTANTLY HOW WE MAKE DECISIONS AND VIEW THE
WORLD.
FROM SEARCH TO DESTINATION

4. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
ADD World
ATTENTION SPANS ARE DIMINISHING. WE ARE
BECOMING INCREASINGLY RELIANT ON A SKIM-READ,
INSTANT SEARCH AND HEADLINE ORIENTATED
MINDSET
ACCORDING TO A STUDY BY UK BANK LLOYDS’ TSB
“The average attention span had fallen to just 5 minutes,
down from 12 minutes 10 years ago. A quarter of people
polled said they regularly forget the names of close friends or
relatives, and seven per cent even admitted to momentarily
forgetting their own birthdays.” [1]
MOST PEOPLE NOW EXPECT INFORMATION TO BE EDITED AND PRE-DIGESTED, FEW
ARE INTERESTED, OR HAVE THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND THE ‘FULL’ STORY.
“What the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and
contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a
swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip
along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” [2]

5. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Memory Storage
WITH SO MANY DIGITAL MEMORY AIDS AND DEVICES AVAILABLE WE NO LONGER NEED TO RELY ON
OUR OWN MEMORIES.
REFLECTING THE DE-MATERIALIZATION OF INFORMATION
SCIENTISTS ALREADY PREDICT THAT IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE PEOPLE WILL ‘OFFLOAD’
AND STORE MEMORIES DIRECT FROM THEIR BRAINS.
“The Personal Memory Device (PMD) sounds like science fiction, but the technology for creating it exist today. It
could be and iPhone app.” James Kent, Your Personal Memory Device. You could have one today. [4]
IN THE MEANTIME THE MARKET FOR ONLINE MEMORY AND STORAGE IS BOOMING.

6. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Death of ‘Long Form’
ALL THIS IS IMPACTING HOW WE THINK AND THE KIND OF STORIES WE RELATE TO.
DEATH OF LONG FORM JOURNALISM.
PEOPLE BUY FEWER BOOKS AND READ EVEN LESS.

7. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Story Structures are Changing
THE INFLUENCE OF SKIM CULTURE CAN BE SEEN IN THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL
LINEAR NARRATIVE STORYLINES IN FILM AND FICTION. A NEW GENERATION OF
ENTERTAINMENT IS BEING DEVELOPED WITH MULTIPLE SIMULTANEOUS PLOT LINES
AND ENDINGS.
THE FILM INDUSTRY AND MIT MEDIA LABS ARE LAUNCHING A ‘CENTRE FOR FUTURE
STORYTELLING’ WHICH WILL EXAMINE WHETHER THE OLD WAY OF TELLING STORIES —
PARTICULARLY THOSE DELIVERED TO THE MILLIONS ON SCREEN, WITH A BEGINNING, A
MIDDLE AND AN END — IS COMING TO AN END?

8. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Filtered World
MOST PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT THE WWW BROADENS THEIR WORLD BUT FEW REALLY
UNDERSTAND THE EFFECT OF INVISIBLE ALGORITHMS ON QUALITY OF THEIR WEB
EXPERIENCE.
THESE IMPOSED FILTERS INHERENTLY PLAY TO WHAT THE ALGORITHM THINKS YOU
WILL LIKE MOST, MEANING THAT THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEARCH ‘OUT OF THE BOX’ OR
FIND NEW SOURCES OF INFORMATION BECOMES NARROWER.
US POLITICAL ACTIVIST ELI PARSER HAS COINED THE PHRASE ‘FILTER BUBBLES’ TO
DESCRIBE THE PHENOMENON.

9. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Death of Objectivity
IS MORE BECOMING LESS?
THE FACT THAT WE HAVE ACCESS TO SO MUCH INFORMATION MEANS WE HAVE
TO RELY ON COLLECTIVE BODIES (WIKIPEDIA, GOOGLE) TO PROCESS AND
COLLATE THE INFORMATION. THE RESULT IS THAT THE RANGE OF OPTIONS AND
OPINIONS ARE ACTUALLY REDUCED TO AN AGGREGATE OF THE MOST POPULAR.
SOME PEOPLE ARGUE THAT THIS COLLECTIVE OR HIVE MIND IS ELIMINATING THE
UNIQUE OR INDIVIDUAL VOICE AND IS LEADING TO MISINFORMATION ON AN EVER
GREATER SCALE , CORRUPTION, DUMBING DOWN AND MOB RULE. ARE WE
LOSING THE ABILITY AND THE DESIRE TO SEE THE WIDER PICTURE?

10. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Jack of All Trades – Master of None
THE 21ST HAS WITNESSED A HUGE RISE IN THE CULT OF THE AMATEUR. FEW
PEOPLE CAN CLAIM TO BE REAL EXPERTS IN A (WIKI) WORLD WHERE
EVERYONE’S POINT OF VIEW IS VALID AND THERE IS A ‘HOW TO’ VIDEO ON YOU
TUBE TO ALMOST EVERYTHING.
WE ARE TOO FOCUSED ON THE SOLUTION OR DESTINATION THAT WE FORGET
ABOUT THE PROCESS OR SKILL.
WE ARE BECOMING OVERLY RELIANT ON TECHNOLOGY TO DO THINGS FOR US
THAT WE ARE IN DANGER OF FORGETTING HOW TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
EFFECTIVELY OURSELVES.

11. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
The Illusion of Connection
WHILE TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING US MORE CONNECTED, PEOPLE ARE NOW
QUESTIONING THE QUALITY OF THOSE CONNECTIONS.
IN A WORLD OF INCREASINGLY ‘THIN’ RELATIONSHIPS, PEOPLE ARE LOOKING
FOR QUALITY CONNECTIONS THEY CAN TRUST
“Call it relationship inflation. Nominally, you have a lot more relationships — but in reality,
few, if any, are actually valuable. Just as currency inflation debases money, so social
inflation debases relationships. The very word "relationship" is being cheapened. It used
to mean someone you could count on. Today, it means someone you can swap bits with.”
Umar Haque. Harvard Business Review, [4]

12. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Implications

13. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Info Snacking
THE CONTINUING RISE OF SKIM CULTURE WILL SEE AN INCREASING DEMAND FOR
INFO NUGGETS AND CULTURE DIGESTS TO FULFILL PEOPLES DESIRE TO CONSUME
MORE AND MORE INFORMATION.
INFORMATION HAS EVOLVED FROM SOMETHING WE GATHER FROM MULTIPLE
SOURCES, DIGEST AND FORM OUR OWN OPINIONS TO SOMETHING TRANSIENT
THAT WE CONSUME QUICKLY, USE AS CURRENCY AND THEN PASS ON OR FORGET
AT THE CLICK OF A MOUSE.
APPLICATIONS LIKE TWEETDECK FEED MULTIPLE TWITTER ACCOUNTS INTO ONE
PLACE PROVIDING A CONSTANTLY UPDATED DAILY STREAM OF INFORMATION,
WHICH IS OFTEN MORE ABOUT NOVELTY AND QUANTITY THAN QUALITY.

14. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Appeal of the Random
`
THE MORE WE ARE FORCED TO RELY ON A LIMITED NUMBER OF ONLINE SOURCES AND
DIGESTS THE MORE PEOPLE WILL VALUE AND CRAVE ORIGINALITY AND RANDOMNESS.
FROM THE SUCCESS OF CHATROULETTE TO THE LAUNCH OF NESTLE-ROWNTREE’S
‘RANDOMS’, THERE IS GROWING APPRECIATION FOR RANDOM DISCOVERIES AND OBSCURE
PRODUCTS.

15. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Pop Up World + Limited Edition Extreme
`
IF ITS NOT NEW ITS NOT INTERESTING.
WE WILL CONTINUE TO SEE A RISE OF POP-UP RETAIL & ENTERTAINMENT CATERING TO
INCREASINGLY SHORT ATTENTION SPANS.
EXPECT THE CONCEPT TO INFILTRATE MORE CATEGORIES AND SECTORS OVER THE
NEXT FEW YEARS

16. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
App World / ‘How to’ guides
WITH FEW PEOPLE ARE PREPARED TO SPEND A LIFETIME
LEARNING A SINGLE SKILL (THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT)
EVERYONE WANTS THE SHORT CUT, THE CHEAT, THE QUICK WAY
– NO ONE BELIEVES THEY HAVE THE TIME TO LEARN ANYTHING
THE LONG WAY.

17. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
Towards 4D Storytelling
THE NEXT GENERATION OF STORYTELLING IS BLURRING THE BOUNDARIES
BETWEEN ENTERTAINMENT AND COMMUNICATION.
MANY OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND COMMUNICATION
CONCEPTS ARE BASED AROUND MANY SMALL PIECES OR MULTILAYERED
MESSAGES WHICH USERS NEED TO DECODE INTO TO UNDERSTAND THE
STORY.
EXAMPLES LIKE THE NINE INCH NAILS – YEAR ZERO OR THE LAUNCH OF
BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT, DEMONSTRATE THE POTENTIAL ON THIS KIND
OF STORYTELLING.
http://www.42entertainment.com/yearzero/

18. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
New Value of Skill & Craft
`
PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO VALUE SKILL, CRAFT, AND THE JOURNEY – BECAUSE IT IS
RARE AND VALUABLE AND BECAUSE IT RUNS COUNTER TO THE DOMINANT CULTURE.
LUXURY BRANDS ARE INCREASINGLY RACHETING UP THEIR CRAFT VALUES AS WAY OF
COMMUNICATION THEIR PREMIUM QUALITY AND STATUS.

19. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
1. Mathew Moore, Stress of Modern Life Cuts Attention Spans to five Minutes, Telegraph, Nov 28, 2008,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3522781/Stress-of-modern-life-cuts-attention-spans-to-five-minutes.html
2. Nicolas Carr, Is The Internet Making Us Stoopid, The Atlantic Magazine, July/Aug 2008
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
3. James Kent, Your Personal Memory Device, March 10, 2010, H+ magazine
http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/neuro/your-personal-memory-device-you-could-have-one-today
4. Umar Haque, The Social Media Bubble, March 23, 2010 , Havard Business Review.
http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/
http://www.instantecg.org/
http://www.tweetdeck.com/
http://icloud.com/en
http://chatroulette.com/
http://hipstery.com
http://www.rowntrees-randoms.co.uk//
http://www.marmite.com/
http://www.vitaminwater.com/
http://www.42entertainment.com/yearzero/
http://www.gucci.com/uk/campaign/forever-now/

20. FUTURE SIGNS LOWE COUNSEL LOWE & PARTNERS APRIL 2010
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