| The concept of “real life” is changing. In this wired world, our relationships with family, friends, employers, and even pets are increasingly virtual. And in a world in which it’s becoming normal to order such everyday items as groceries and clothing online, day-to-day social interaction is decreasing. Is it mere coincidence that distance, detachment, and voyeurism seem to be on the rise? Isolation may need to be redefined, as being online together becomes the accepted form of socializing in the Digital Age.
• Trend: More Time Online, Less Time F2F
The more people use the Internet, the less time they spend interacting face to face (F2F), according to a new study from the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society. Those who spend more than five hours per week online spend less time with family and friends, says Norman Nie, a Stanford University political scientist. About one-third of those questioned in the study said they are online five or more hours a week. Of those, 13 percent said they spend less time with family and friends, and 8 percent attend fewer social events.
• Trend: Virtual Friends
In the Western world, our lives are becoming increasingly insular. One-third of Britons don’t know their next-door neighbors, and complete indifference or open hostility is more common than neighborliness, according to a Cambridge University study reported in the Daily Mail. “We now have a sea of acquaintances, but often these are people we have hardly met. By 2005 we shall speak to other people for less than three hours a day,” says Professor John Locke. The inherent isolation of modern life is at least partly to blame: Corner shops have been replaced by suburban malls, parks are no-go danger zones, and houses are no longer arranged around squares, drawing people together to chat.
In the U.S., friendships are becoming a casualty of time-pressed lives, reports The Wall Street Journal. Blame it on longer working hours, an increase in business travel — up 14 percent since 1994 — and the flood of infotainment that keeps us wired to everything but other people. Email renders real friendships virtual, and increasing affluence means that people buy weekend homes that keep them out of the social loop.
• Trend: No-Muss, No-Fuss Kids and Pets
Too busy for a baby? There’s always time for cyber-parenthood. U.S. software company Mindscape Entertainment has developed a CD-ROM featuring 15 virtual babies that behave just like real infants, including throwing food and tantrums. Mindscape told the Scottish Daily Record that the CD is aimed at career women who like the idea of motherhood but don’t have time for a real infant.
Would-be parents who find even a cyber-baby too great a responsibility can start with a virtual pet. Japanese electronics firm Omron claims its “Tama” robotic cat can develop a personality of sorts, depending on how it is treated. According to the Mainichi Daily News, the firm’s research found that 70 percent of the women who stroked the pseudo-tabby for 30 minutes said they developed a real sense of attachment to it.
• Trend: Cybersex Compulsives
Even the most intimate acts have gone high tech and low touch, with some disturbing results. The rise of Internet sex—ranging from pornographic Websites to saucy chatrooms — may be creating a breed of people who cannot control their sexual compulsions, says a study from California’s San Jose Marital and Sexuality Center. Researcher Dr. Al Cooper told Reuters that about 1 percent of those surveyed spend more than 11 hours a week engaging in cybersex, and thus could be classified as “cybersex compulsives.” Perhaps the percentage “seems small,” says Dr. Cooper, “but when applied to the big picture, it could represent hundreds of thousands of individuals.” His research indicates that 20 percent of men and 12 percent of women access cybersex at work.
WHAT’S NEXT?
• Being There: Economic forces allowing, business and leisure travel will continue to increase, as reality-starved clients and consumers hunger for more personal contact.
• Operators Are Standing By: In the years ahead, interaction with actual human beings will be as great a source of competitive advantage as automation was in years past.
• This Is How We Shake Hands: Employers will develop special training programs in face-to-face communication for workers whose sole business language is email.
• Sprechen Sie Smiley Face?: Fluency in emoticons — the “body language” of the Internet — as well as one’s native tongue will become a new form of bilingualism.
(Editor’s Note: Future Dialogue is Brand Futures Group’s weekly trendletter; it keeps Y&R Inc. employees and clients up-to-date on issues, trends, and events that are affecting consumer markets worldwide. Please direct comments and topic. A complete archive of BFG publications is available at www.brandfutures.com.) |
