We live in a polarised era. At one end there is trust, and at the other its extreme opposite, distrust. There is nothing in between. All of society is gradually moving to an extreme end of this binary. While some of us believe that we live somewhere on the Plimsoll line of this belief, the truth is that we forever sway towards one extreme or the other.
Take one key issue staring at us every single day. We live in digital times. I pay my phone bill digitally, I order in food and grocery digitally, just as I book my movie tickets digitally. Digital convenience is something all of us take for granted. If the server of my electricity company is disrupted for a few days and I can’t pay online anymore, I am disgruntled. As I am now. Digital and all the convenience it offers are taken for granted. These are all digital conveniences that are trusted and respected for what they do.
At the other end is a whole host of other things we take for granted as well. It is the daily news feed I get on my phone, the social media connections that add zing to my otherwise placid life, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Threads and more. It is, equally, Tinder, Bumble and TrulyMadly. Social media is the new virtual connect to the world outside. A medium that helps me broadcast, like, follow and repost for the ostensible benefit of others.
Digital therefore has two avatars today. One is the functional and convenience-oriented set of apps that bring an Uber or Ola cab to my doorstep, and the other is the cosmetic and social. In this latter category lie the social connect apps, dating apps, and indeed every app that gets me outdoors and partying without going outdoors and partying at all. There sure is a ‘real’ life out there as there is a ‘virtual’ one. With the limited time on hand, many of us are gravitating more towards the virtual and less to the real. When I have those 40 minutes in a day to spare, I would rather immerse myself in my X and Instagram feed than step out and meet a friend (which involves a commute, an expense and a deeper involvement than the frivolous and skin-deep one I enjoy on my social media feeds).
In this ‘work-in-progress’ digital era, there is the real and the virtual. I am really getting more comfortable with the virtual, which I am tempted to cruelly dub ‘unreal’ even. There is a keen competition between the real and the virtual. The real seems to be losing steam for now, even as the virtual wins and strides ahead seamlessly. Think. In many of our lives, we tend to choose the virtual over the real. Governments, public bodies, schools and colleges, banks and even diseases such as Covid seem to be pushing us to embrace the virtual.
The real is just too physical. Physical disconnect is the reality today. Does this fact not say that we are getting disconnected from the real and progressively embracing the unreal?
As 2024 chugs on, as the virtual world on our digital access devices gets thrust upon us by all and sundry, I do believe it is time to sit up and think. Think of the harm we do to ourselves, our relationships, society, the mental health of all, the economy, the polity, and most importantly, do think of the way we are bringing up our children to fit into a society that believes more in the unreal (sorry, ‘virtual’) and less in the real (proudly ‘physical’).
Am I being a dull bull in a crazy China shop of societal reality today as it has evolved? Am I being an antediluvian stable keeper in a market where the horses have fled long back? Maybe yes, maybe not. Let me paint you a picture of the way things may pan out, thankfully in the not-too-distant future. Here are a set of random thoughts that make me happy that our collective mid-term future is safe and taken care of.
The real battle is between physical trust and digital distrust for a start. Let me take the easy case of the media. Print, radio, outdoor, point-of-purchase and television are media that have evolved over decades of use. Each is considered reasonably physical. Even television, which happens to be a medium curated by responsible editors and owners who decide what can be shown and what not, is today considered reasonably reliable. The least reliable of the four, but still as reliable as it can get.
On the digital side of the fence sit WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, X and 61 other digital apps that rule the imagination of millions. What they see on these media seems to rule both minds and money for now. No wonder we have an army of 1,62,000 social media influencers in India alone. The young and the young at heart are locked onto these digital media. While physical media are time-respected, heritage-respected and respected for a whole lot of other reasons, digital media is more supported. Digital media is attracting more money from brands, marketers and advertisers of every kind. As print loses advertising revenue, a bulk of it and more is moving to digital platforms. As print struggles, digital wiggles.
Let me come back to the moot point of the battle between trust and distrust. The key question we asked in a February 2024 mass market research exercise in India that covered a sample of 1,42,000 customer-citizens was, when it comes to news, would you trust a newspaper or a digital platform? The answers? Newspapers 64 percent, digital 18 percent, and equal 18 percent. Interesting.
Let me take you back to a similar exercise we did in January 2023. The verdict then? Newspapers 54 percent, digital 27 percent, and equal 19 percent. The numbers tell a story of their own. The indicative trend-lines are interesting.
What about tomorrow?
This is only about news. We also have answers to these questions: how would you choose a doctor? A lawyer? A candidate to vote for? Buy a car? Buy a cosmetic-concealer? Identify a liposuction specialist? All the answers, despite the overwhelming attention and spending the digital medium is getting today, points to the physical versus the virtual. Is the future looking brighter for the physical and the real? Must you just wait it out as digital digs for itself a distrust grave of its own making? Ouch.
Harish Bijoor | Brand Guru & Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults
(Views are personal)
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)