Making connections in Wall-e world; and have you heard the goldfish theory?

Yvonne Guibert. @buzzystreet Connections in Wall-e World. With social media becoming more prevalent in our daily activities and the fact that we lead ever-increasing busy lives, it should be no surprise to anyone that our attention spans are waning. About 10 years ago, after seeing Disney’s / Pixar’s Wall-E, I began referencing the movie often to make that point and I still refer to it often. The movie is set in the future: 2805 to be exact. Earth is uninhabitable. Humans live in space on a mothership called Axiom. All humans have become rotund due to inactivity. Everything is autonomous. Rotund people float around on fancy lounge chairs, speaking to each other through a digital screen floating in front of their faces…to have a conversation with the person sitting next to them…sound familiar?

The rotund people float around a perpetual freeway cluttered with digital billboards everywhere…overhead and on every possible surface the eye can see. Nothing really stands out. Everything is run by one mega corporation: Buy-N-Large. Everything is done for you, so there is no need to do anything, think or process information. It is a virtual existence. Wall-e is a older model robot left on earth to clean up garbage and scan for signs of life. He’s a different kind of robot. He has feelings. He falls for EVE, a newer, sleeker robot sent from Axiom to scan Earth. Wall-e is a story of authenticity, hope and of course, love. While we haven’t quite reached this extreme, standing out in an increasingly noisy and chaotic world is a real issue today that makes the process of marketing more complex than ever before. Companies and brands are finding it harder than ever to connect with their audience.

So, how do you capture someone’s attention? How do you create memorable interactions? Do you think Wall-e’s portrayal of our future is where we are headed? If you haven’t seen the movie, I encourage you to check it out. There are some important lessons there and it’s a super cute movie. I look forward to thinking and writing more about this in the weeks ahead.

Mark Pew. @RxProfessor Your Attention Span Is Now Less Than a Goldfish! According to a Time article from May, 2015 that has been shared countless times, a study by Microsoft reports the attention span of goldfish = 9 seconds; and the attention span of humans = 8 seconds. Patience is hard. And making well-informed choices are even harder. And performing due diligence on healthcare options for pain is often not done. In an immediate gratification society, slowing things down to think thru the short and long term repercussions, strategically analyzing the risks vs. benefits, and asking questions for self-education is often not the first option. But it’s the right option. This post is repurposed with Mark’s permission.

More goldfish food for thought… Is your attention span less than a goldfish? Another perspective of whether or not our attention spans are less than a goldfish. I’m not sure it is entirely scientific, but it does poke some holes in the goldfish attention span theory. Enjoy this article, published just last year on WSJ.

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