(2006-03-31) Stone Etech

Linda Stone spoke at ETech on the challenges of remembering what's Meaningful in a world of Continuous Partial Attention. Connect, connect, connect has brought us to a place where we feel overwhelmed, over-stimulated and unfulfilled. We want protection, we want more filtering, we want a sense of meaning and belonging - this is the pendulum shift that emerges. These qualities characterize the products and services we want, the marketing messages that resonate with us and the types of leaders and corporate cultures that engage us... Whether it's products or services, recruiting strategies, leadership, marketing or coporate cultures, we will increasingly be inclined to resonate with messages of meaning, belonging, protection, and trust... Discerning opportunity - what do we REALLY need and want to pay attention to? Attention is our scarcest and most valuable resource (Attention Economy). What we do with our attention defines us... The new Mantra, the new differentiator, the new opportunity for all of us is: improves Quality Of Life. Does this product, service, feature, message - enhance and improve our quality of life? Does it help us protect, filter, create a Meaningful connection? Discern? On the other hand, maybe this is chasing in the wrong direction, and her earlier comment was more on-target: For those of you who think that you are witnessing a 50 year old's meltdown, consider this - a 20-something said to me recently, "Linda, I quit every social network I was on so I could actually have dinner with people." Maybe it's really just about the Real World.