Tech. has changed the way we deliver and consume media, and we are what we eat right? Today this is mostly digital fast food* and it’s rubbing off on how we interact outside of digital platforms too.

In terms of media consumption, the millennial lifestyle has become the 86 400 second/ weekendless week lifestyle in this digital age. Media companies understand this- that we are pressed for time- and find ways to grab our attention in the seconds we have to spare. Take the gif* for example, which is really quite clever because it communicates a point in the time span of a single glance. For some communication, this is okay, but I think we have to be careful of how this trend affects other communication in our lives too.

It caught my attention the other day as I was sitting at a cafe, listening in on a few conversations in the immediate area, that many of these conversations tended to flow from one topic to another without getting into detail or debate*. It was quantity over quality of knowledge. Writing down all the points in the conversation, upon review, it would be just like scrolling through a newsfeed.

Like the gif, many of us scan news headlines without reading into further detail. There are also so many sources we need to follow to be ‘cool’ and ‘in the loop’ or have that ‘know all’, and it’s impossible to get through them all. Nevertheless, our digitally focused generation pushes for this scrolling trend and headline only consumption of news.

Kids are starting to use tech. at a very young age too, and will grow up used to this way of communicating as the way to do so. I have no fears of tech. itself (tech. is awesome!), but I do worry about how we use it and the way it changes our behavior. An informed user is key.

We are what we eat.

*Digital fast food- not necessarily bad media, but snippets of information that doesn’t provide a lot of detail.

*GIF- Graphics Interchange Format  (FYI)!

*Debate- argue about (a subject), especially in a formal manner (definition by google)