BY THE ALIMOCHE TEAM
6 FEBRUARY 2023
The idea behind this Article stems from the nouvelle vague of Bloggers, Writers, Artists, the TikTok generation, the Facebook reposters and Marketing strategists driving the stagecoach of international internet traffic. Alimoche looks at the turning tides of advertising and the ways in which we perceive products as a whole. Are we being force-fed endless waves of intergenerational change in how we are influenced?
From the oxymoronically humble-yet-glossy backgrounds of magazine articles to the epic "Halftime Shows" of the Super Bowl, the way we deliver information on the international superhighway is evolving in a way that is now guaranteeing the next generation a complete career path from their own spaces at home. With information available at our fingertips, remote careers are more accessible than ever, facilitating the inclusion of more minority groups and people with disabilities, and eliminating the need for a designated physical office space; to the detriment of micromanagers but to the benefit of those wishing to avoid the toxicity of complete exposure to mundane office politics.
have we gone too far with artificial intelligence? read more and find out...
Ask most kids these days what they want to be and most will now say "INFLUENCER". In the 2000s, kids wanted to be writers, plumbers, dancers or learn further skills, but in this new culture of insta-careers and nepotism, a career has become a source of instant gratification through company-induced hustle culture via the commodification of the soul; shamelessly transforming individuality into a Meta-based avatar.
The insatiable demand from supercorporations to hawk their wares via social media has turned the idea of Marketing into a fast-paced Money-making frenzy for those willing to commit. However, returns on investment in both time and money are scant; in the era of dropshippers, everyone wants to make a quick buck, meaning a saturation of suppliers, yet minimal levels of demands.
Advertising of the 2020s no longer requires intermittently-spaced hypnotic subliminal imagery and expensive 30-second advertising breaks. Instead, relying on influencers and the youth in manufacturing viral trends through “content houses' and kitschy branding teams to take on the role of Salesperson representing a huge demographic for a particular sponsored product placement, forgoing the billboards and advertising directly to the consumer. For instance, YouTube on its own raised profits for individual companies, small businesses and sole traders by millions through its Shorts video feature, making Vloggers around $5,000 in advertising revenue per month.
broken childhoods: is the ai influenza destroying kids' dreams?
source: unsplash
So the question remains: Should companies have a moral responsibility to provide more services for the youth in a physical, more hands-on approach to Online Education connected to the business at hand? With the introduction of cyber technology and remote working, are we going through an industrial de-evolution in that we are more reliant on robotics and technology to overtake the manual labour of the human, therefore reworking the brain to fixate more on subjective matter and thought process more than physical dexterity due to learning less skills, thus refocusing the physical self to the manufactured lure of healthy living and lifestyle changes to work around the lack of jobs requiring physical motivation and dexterity?
Is there a moral compass to be set when it comes to establishing healthy boundaries against the toil of overexploitation and enslavement via corporations? Is there a point where we must limit the working day over health and monitor the mental health of those committing to the life of a vlogger? Do we need more stringent regulation in place to protect the vulnerable?
Moreover, the entire structure of LAW needs addressing. The structure of modern Tech Laws in Business to protect everyone online and the exploitation of the youth and the ever-growing bombardment of cyber threats and false advertising are plagues on our society, infecting minds and motherboards alike. What constitutes good advertising over the negative and unregulated spamming and what are the limits? Have corporate guidelines become the new judge and jury? The U.K. is developing regulations as we speak to protect the consumer but will it be enough to curb this onslaught of media meddling?
So back to the header "Industrial De-Evolution"; this concept is a clapback at all the innovations that came with working practices and ideas brought together by likeminded people and innovators in the business practice, in addition to well-known Philanthropists. Around the 1760s, the servitude of "Physical labourers" and unregulated hazardous work practices was capitalised on during a mass population growth. There was the urgent need to find a metamorphosis of the way we think about each other, an urgency in restructuring a post-renaissance society, changing humanism for capitalism, and we have only further degenerated since.
WHEN WE THINK OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, WE PICTURE THESE TYPES OF IMAGES. SWAP THE MACHINES FOR LAPTOPS, WHAT HAS CHANGED?
SOURCE: UNSPLASH
Today we are going through that same change, but it is all laden with the burden of fluctuating tech markets and reliability of new ideals dictated by again the next generation of new thinkers, innovators and again Philanthropy. The sourness of Silicon Valley festers as our corporate overlords rub their sweaty palms with the glee of our constant dependency culture, without which we could say maybe the system would break down. As the reliance on world leaders diminishes and faith in Governments to perform for the will of the people plummets, it is becoming a very toxic environment for the world as we know it. Supply demand and greed being the only motivators. Blood, sweat and microchips.
People need jobs, kids need role-models, innovation needs to be accessible for everyone. Yet Congolese children are choking to death mining for cobalt and lithium whilst American fat cats sit on their wads of cash.
the irony: the west criticising the "lesser developed world" for their lack of infrastructure whilst simultaneously blocking it from becoming accessible to the rest of the world.
The term "De-Evolution" refers to the undoing of the old concept as a whole. We are heading into a new era- a period of huge change and struggle for those left behind to fend for themselves in this technological influenza. The dumbing down of the overstimulated human mind through excessive reliance on technology over using and exercising the brain through physical interaction is a consequence of our addiction. Will there be a demographic of non thinkers using tech such as bots and programmed automated services to take over? Leaving a huge divide between the Programmers of the future becoming the new bourgeoisie and the older or underprivileged younger generation left suffering without support, a programmeless proletariat? This De-Evolution could potentially have an adverse effect and set a new Class of rebellion. A conflict of the old world versus the new, pushing people underground and enabling the underdevelopment of cognitive thinking . In this world maybe the term "Duo Classism” reigns instead of the 5 main socioeconomic classes that we have come to know today; the haves and the have nots. Perhaps this would be the largest sociopolitical divide since the Russian Revolution.
This huge question looms over us, and we must desperately address and consider how we handle it in a very precise but sensitive way. It is prudent to avoid alienating those from impoverished and hard working backgrounds, to nurture and respect those from the ground up, as that is the root of the division. As Marx and MacRae state, structured society begins with a good foundation.
Let us coin the term "RE-EVOLUTION" as a new layer in the anthropological strata and advance with caution on the reliance of artificial intelligence and tech moguls to dictate over what is left of Humanity in society, before we take that leap of potential "DE-EVOLUTION", the reliance as a Species on everything except ourselves.
Comments