Marshall McLuhan famously coined the phrase “the medium is the message” in his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. What this means is that the message morphs to suit the medium – creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium doesn’t just distribute the message – it shapes it.
First the internet, then social media and now AI are creating a rapid change to how and what we communicate. In doing so, it is changing the world, radically.
Media technologies like AI extend human senses and alter our relationship with the world, affecting cognition and social organisation, and the economy more broadly.
A new AI Zeitgeist is emerging – Below I’ve summarised a few ideas I’m talking to client about which are now shaping the world. I’m not suggesting I like some of these realities, but here we are.
Feel free to add yours to the comments below.
Reality Distortion
Welcome to the age of Reality Distortion. We consume snippets of people’s lives on Instagram, just a few curated minutes from their 24-hour day, and mistake it for their entire existence. Our feeds, brimming with exotic vacations and sports cars, make our daily grind seem dull. The truth gets twisted.
Enhanced by filters, these snapshots look better than reality, while images of war injuries and LinkedIn promotions add to the chaos. We scroll through these highlight and lowlight reels, confusing them with the real world. They warp our perceptions, distorting our reality.
Now, toss AI into the mix. We’re stepping into a realm where we can’t trust any picture, video, or audio. Did it really happen? We can’t be sure. If you think social media has messed with our reality, get ready. AI is about to crank it up to overdrive.
Trading Attention
The most valuable resource in the modern economy is ‘Attention’ itself.
The most valuable firms (Big Tech) are predicated on garnering more of people’s time – which is now a more limited resource than content is. The world’s 20 biggest tech companies are worth over $20 trillion in total. To put this in perspective, this is nearly 18% of the stock market value globally. They all essentially sell the most scarce resource there is – time. Add to this that every person is now the CEO of their own personal media corporation, and generating cut-through & attention has to be at the top of the list for any company searching for growth.
Hook-onomics
The ultimate challenge is stopping the scroll.
The average TikTok and YouTube short video now gets just 1.5 seconds of view time, down from 6 seconds two years ago. It sounds counter-intuitive, but grabbing attention trumps the message initially. The game plan? Hook first, message later. Once engagement is secured, you can reverse in your message and credentials.
The relentless flood of content has forever altered the playing field. In this landscape, mastering the art of the hook isn’t just strategy—it’s survival.
Rapid Obsolescence
Creative executions in the market are becoming obsolete faster than ever.
Australians now spend an average of 5.5 hours a day glued to their smartphones. Ideas, memes, and trends flash in and out of existence in the blink of an eye. The smartest strategy? Jump on trends early, review weekly, and ditch what’s not working—sunk costs be damned. It’s about adopting low-cost, high-volume tactics to keep pace with the relentless churn.
In this hyper-fast environment, longitudinal assessment of ideas means it’ll be over before you get to market… we have little choice but to act.
Back Channel Reality
Extreme views breed fear, silencing genuine thoughts. Social media divides us into rival factions, turning any divergent idea into a battleground. A simple proposal, or worse, a mistake, sparks a relentless social media pile-on.
We don’t just filter our images; we filter our thoughts to appease algorithms and avoid ‘being canceled’, maybe a job loss. Our true opinions retreat to back channels—direct messages and whispered conversations over coffee. Social media, once empowering, now traps us into either ‘protection or promotion mode’ with every post.
Public discourse is stifled, and authenticity is a rare commodity. The real dialogue happens in the shadows, far from the curated feeds and echo chambers.
Dichotomy Economy
We are seeing a split into a 2-speed economy. We’re all residents of the newly formed global country I call ‘Extremistan’. The things that work best are on opposite ends of the extreme – premium price or super cheap… Full service (Apple) and no service (Amazon). In politics, it’s the extreme left or extreme right getting all the attention.
We can even see this socio-politically. Sadly, the middle class is being eroded as we see the rich increase their share of wealth. The top 0.1% of Americans now own 14% of all wealth, while the majority of people struggle with the cost of housing and living generally. This means that the best response from corporations is to have product and service offers which pays homage to this economic reality – stay on the edges. Don’t get lost in the middle ground – which is where ideas brands and go to die.
Got an event coming up? Get me into to discuss what’s next with AI. I’ll blow your collective minds … I promise. Message Steve Sammartino
Cult of the CEO
People are buying into the corporate storybook more than at any time in history. The irrational share prices of Tesla and Nvidia are classic examples of the power of the narrative. People are gravitating to companies (and people inside them) which tell a story of a better future… and seem to be leaning into what is next.
Often these stories are not backed up by reality or delivering against that promise, and yet the cycle continues. Musk promised to be on Mars by 2022 and have over 1 million robo-taxis on the road by 2019. Seems our memories are starting to match the short form media environment.
Recently Jensen Huang has said we’ll have humanoid robots in our houses doing the dishes by the end of this decade. We’ll see.
Pragmatism > Purity
To utilize modern marketing methods, brands and companies need to choose pragmatism over purity. This might involve straddling a balance between traditional corporate positioning and something outside of how you’d usually communicate.
It might seem like pandering to the market in the hunt for attention, and it is. It will feel risky. However, we ought to remember that most customers won’t remember how they found you once they understand your capability and expertise.
We ought to choose practicality over purity.
Where to now?
While we don’t get to chose the world we live in, but we get to choose how we respond. We can embrace these new realities for economic advantage, or we can fight to change and shape it. The best course of action is most often following what you believe in. This might mean economics matter more than liking the game you’re playing, and to others it might mean fighting to fix all that is wrong. Choose wisely.
Keep Thinking,
Steve.
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