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pamphletstoinspire · 7 years ago

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Porn’s Harm Is Changing Fast

Skeptics of pornography’s danger point out that porn has been around a long time. After all, the ancient Greeks painted sexual images on their pottery. But comparing paintings on Greek vases to today’s endless stream of live-action, hardcore videos is like comparing apples to…um…kumquats. Technology is changing not only the content of porn, but how, when, and at what age it’s being consumed.

The year was 1953, and Hugh Heffner had just published the first copy of Playboy.

Sex had just started to become a more prominent part of American’s cultural conversation, partly because of Dr. Alfred Kinsey who, five years earlier, had published a controversial but extremely popular book on sexuality. [1] He was heralded as one of the first scientists and writers to talk so openly about sexuality, and his books went flying off the shelves. [2]

Heffner saw a chance to make money from the changing cultural views about sex. But to maximize sales of his new magazine he had to change porn’s image from something your friend’s creepy relative might read to something sophisticated and mainstream. So Heffner put his pornographic photos next to essays and articles written by respected authors. In Playboy, porn started to look like nothing more than harmless pleasure engaged in by respectable and successful individuals.

Flash forward to the 1980s, when VCRs suddenly made it possible for people to watch movies at home. [3] For porn consumers, that meant that instead of having to go to seedy movie theaters on the wrong side of town, they just went to the back room at their local movie rental place. Sure, they still had to go out to find it, but porn was a lot more accessible.

And then the internet changed everything. [4][5]

Once porn hit the Web in the 1990s, suddenly there was nothing but a few keystrokes between anyone with an internet connection and the most graphic material available. [4] The online porn industry exploded. Between 1998 and 2007, the number of pornographic websites grew by 1,800%. [6] By 2004, porn sites were getting three times more visitors than Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Search put together. [7] It was “big business” in a way the world had never seen before. Thirty percent of all internet data was related to porn, [8] and worldwide porn revenues (including internet, sex shops, videos rented in hotel rooms, etc.) grew to exceed the incomes of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix, and Earthlink combined! [9]

As internet porn grew more popular, it also turned darker, more graphic, and more extreme. (See Why Consuming Porn Is An Escalating Behavior.) With so much porn available, pornographers tried to compete for attention by constantly pushing the boundaries. [10] “Thirty years ago ‘hardcore’ pornography usually meant the explicit depiction of sexual intercourse,” writes Dr. Norman Doidge, a neuroscientist and author of The Brain That Changes Itself. “Now hardcore has evolved and is increasingly dominated by the sadomasochistic themes … all involving scripts fusing sex with hatred and humiliation.” [11] In our post-Playboy world, porn now features degradation, abuse, and humiliation of people in a way never before seen in the mass media. [12] “[S]oftcore is now what hardcore was a few decades ago,” Doidge explains. “The comparatively tame softcore pictures of yesteryear … now show up on mainstream media all day long, in the pornification of everything, including television, rock videos, soap operas, advertisements, and so on.” [13]

As the popularity of internet porn grew like wildfire, so did its influence. Network television shows, pay-per-view channel series, and movies began to up the ante with more and more graphic content as they scrambled to keep the attention of audiences accustomed to internet porn. [14] Between 1998 and 2005, the number of sex scenes on American TV shows nearly doubled, [15] and it wasn’t just happening on adult programs. In a study conducted in 2004 and 2005, 70% of the 20 TV shows most often watched by teens included sexual content, and nearly half showed sexual behavior. [16] And for the first time, porn was becoming a routine part of teen life and a major way adolescents learned about sex. [17]

By now, porn’s effects have soaked into every aspect of our lives. [18] Popular video games now feature full nudity. [19] Snowboards marketed to teens are plastered with images of porn performers. [20] Even children’s toys have become more sexualized. [21]

Technology has changed not only the content of the porn, but also how, when, and at what age they consume it. Young men and women are all presented with the issue of today’s porn, and studies show that by the time they turn 14 years old, two out of three boys in the U.S. have viewed porn in the last year, [22] and many are watching it on devices they have with them 24 hours a day.

And for all of these changes to the nature and reach of today’s pornography, we haven’t even mentioned the most disturbing development of all: human trafficking. The modern-day slave trade (and there is one) is fueled by pornography. Over two-thirds of all calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center involve sex trafficking—an estimated 21 million victims worldwide [23], and in one survey, 63% of underage sex trafficking victims said they had been advertised or sold online [24].

This is not a Third World problem. Sex trafficking, and its dissemination through online pornographic sites, extends beyond prostitution and child trafficking rings to the many “revenge porn” sites, to the coercion, drugging, and/or physical abuse of porn performers, wannabe models, and runaways right here in the United States. Human trafficking includes any “commercial sex act induced by force, fraud, or coercion.” [25] (See How Porn Fuels Sex Trafficking.)

In fact, exposure to porn has been found, along with poverty, drug abuse, and homelessness, to be one of the most consistent risk factors associated with human trafficking. [26] And after victims are ensnared, porn is often used to desensitize them to the acts in which they will be forced to engage. Quite literally, porn feeds human trafficking and human trafficking feeds porn. [27]

The argument that porn is nothing new—that it’s been around forever and never caused any great harm—seems pretty silly when you think about how different today’s porn is from anything that existed before. Porn is incomparably more accessible, more widespread, and more extreme than anything that existed even a generation ago. Those centerfold magazines that were passed around among youth in previous generations were nothing compared to what youth have access to today, [28] and the consequences of looking today go far beyond young people hoping their parents don’t find out.

The good news is that in response to the unprecedented spread of pornography there are an unprecedented number of resources and people who want to help, whether by spreading facts about pornography or helping those who feel caught in its undertow. Today’s pornography is a new phenomenon, unlike anything humankind has ever seen, but the things that can push porn back are as old as humanity itself: wisdom, vigilance, and a commitment to real love.

Citations

[1] Brown, T. M., & Fee, E. (2003). Alfred C. Kinsey: A Pioneer Of Sex Research. American Journal Of Public Health 93(6), 896-897. Retrieved From Ncbi.Nlm.Nih.Go..cles/PMC1447862

[2] Mestel, R. (2004, November 15). The Kinsey Effect. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved From Articles.Latime..lth/He-Kinsey15

[3] Kalman, T.P. (2008). Clinical Encounters With Internet Pornography. Journal Of The American Academy Of Psychoanalysis And Dynamic Psychiatry, 36(4) 593-618. Doi:10.1521/Jaap.2008.36.4.593; McAline, D. (2001). Interview On American Porn. Frontline, PBS, August.

[4] Layden, M. A. (2010). Pornography And Violence: A New Look At The Research. In J. Stoner & D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 57–68). Princeton, NJ: Witherspoon Institute; Kalman, T.P. (2008). Clinical Encounters With Internet Pornography. Journal Of The American Academy Of Psychoanalysis And Dynamic Psychiatry, 36(4) 593-618. Doi:10.1521/Jaap.2008.36.4.593;

[5] Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, And Our Families. New York: Henry Hold & Co., 3; McCarthy, B. W. (2002). The Wife’s Role In Facilitating Recovery From Male Compulsive Sexual Behavior. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity 9, 4: 275–84. Doi:10.1080/10720160216045; Schneider, J. P. (2000). Effects Of Cybersex Addiction On The Family: Results Of A Survey. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 7(1-2), 31–58. Retrieved From Jenniferschneid..sex_family.Html

[6] Websense Research Shows Online Pornography Sites Continue Strong Growth. (2004). PRNewswire.Com, April 4.

[7] Porn More Popular Than Search. (2004). InternetWeek.Com, June 4.

[8] Negash, S., Van Ness Sheppard, N., Lambert, N. M., & Fincham, F. D. (2016). Trading Later Rewards For Current Pleasure: Pornography Consumption And Delay Discounting. Journal Of Sex Research, 53(6), 689-700. Doi:10.1080/00224499.2015.1025123; Porn Sites Get More Visitors Each Month Than Netflix, Amazon, & Twitter Combined. (2013, May 4). Huffington Post. Retrieved From Huffingtonpost..._n_3187682.Html

[9] DeKeseredy, W. (2015). Critical Criminological Understandings Of Adult Pornography And Women Abuse: New Progressive Directions In Research And Theory. International Journal For Crime, Justice, And Social Democracy, 4(4) 4-21. Doi:10.5204/Ijcjsd.V4i4.184

[10] Woods, J. (2012). Jamie Is 13 And Hasn’t Even Kissed A Girl. But He’s Now On The Sex Offender Register After Online Porn Warped His Mind. Daily Mail (U.K.), April 25.

[11] Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin Books.

[12] DeKeseredy, W. (2015). Critical Criminological Understandings Of Adult Pornography And Women Abuse: New Progressive Directions In Research And Theory. International Journal For Crime, Justice, And Social Democracy, 4(4) 4-21. Doi:10.5204/Ijcjsd.V4i4.184

[13] Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin Books.

[14] Caro, M. (2004). The New Skin Trade. Chicago Tribune, September 19.

[15] Kunkel, D., Eyal, K., Finnerty, K., Biely, E., And Donnerstein, E. (2005). Sex On TV 4. Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

[16] Peter, J. And Valkenburg, P. M. (2007). Adolescents’ Exposure To A Sexualized Media Environment And Their Notions Of Women As Sex Objects. Sex Roles 56,(5-6), Doi:381–95.10.1007/S11199-006-9176-Y

[17] Peter, J. & Valkenburg, P. M., (2016) Adolescents And Pornography: A Review Of 20 Years Of Research. Journal Of Sex Research, 53(4-5), 509-531. Doi:10.1080/00224499.2016.1143441; Rothman, E. F., Kaczmarsky, C., Burke, N., Jansen, E., & Baughman, A. (2015). “Without Porn…I Wouldn’t Know Half The Things I Know Now”: A Qualitative Study Of Pornography Use Among A Sample Of Urban, Low-Income, Black And Hispanic Youth. Journal Of Sex Research, 52(7), 736-746. Doi:10.1080/00224499.2014.960908; Paul, P. (2010). From Pornography To Porno To Porn: How Porn Became The Norm. In J. Stoner & D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 3–20). Princeton, N.J.: Witherspoon Institute; Carroll, J. S., Padilla-Walker, L. M., And Nelson, L. J. (2008). Generation XXX: Pornography Acceptance And Use Among Emerging Adults. Journal Of Adolescent Research, 23(1), 6–30. Doi:10.1177/0743558407306348

[18] Bridges, A. J. (2010). Pornography’s Effect On Interpersonal Relationships. In J. Stoner And D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 89-110). Princeton, NJ: Witherspoon Institute; Paul, P. (2010). From Pornography To Porno To Porn: How Porn Became The Norm. In J. Stoner And D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 3–20). Princeton, N.J.: Witherspoon Institute; Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin Books, 102; Caro, M. (2004). The New Skin Trade. Chicago Tribune, September 19.

[19] Paul, P. (2010). From Pornography To Porno To Porn: How Porn Became The Norm. In J. Stoner And D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 3–20). Princeton, N.J.: Witherspoon Institute.

[20] Paul, P. (2010). From Pornography To Porno To Porn: How Porn Became The Norm. In J. Stoner And D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 3–20). Princeton, N.J.: Witherspoon Institute.

[21] Bridges, A. J. (2010). Pornography’s Effect On Interpersonal Relationships. In J. Stoner And D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs Of Pornography: A Collection Of Papers (Pp. 89-110). Princeton, NJ: Witherspoon Institute.

[22] Rothman, E. F., Kaczmarsky, C., Burke, N., Jansen, E., & Baughman, A. (2015). “Without Porn…I Wouldn’t Know Half The Things I Know Now”: A Qualitative Study Of Pornography Use Among A Sample Of Urban, Low-Income, Black And Hispanic Youth. Journal Of Sex Research, 52(7), 736-746. Doi:10.1080/00224499.2014.960908

[23] University Of New England, “Human Sex Trafficking: An Online Epidemic #Infographic” (2015). Retreived By Visualistan.Com..e-Epidemic.Html

[24] Thorn, “A Report On The Use Of Technology To Recruit, Groom, And Sell Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Victim (2015). Retrieved From Wearethorn.Org/..r_Survey_r5.Pdf

[25] Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) Of 2000. Pub. L. No. 106-386, Section 103 (8) (A).

[26] Countryman-Roswurm, Karen (2017). Primed For Perpetration: Porn And The Perpetuation Of Sex Trafficking. Guest Blog For FTND, Retrieved From Fightthenewdrug..ing-Pornography

[27] Dr. Karen Countryman-Roswurm, LMSW, Ph.D. Interview || Truth About Porn [Video File]. (2016, December 28). Retrieved From Vimeo.Com/190317258

[28] Price, J., Patterson, R., Regnerus, M., & Walley, J. (2016). How Much More XXX Is Generation X Consuming? Evidence Of Changing Attitudes And Behaviors Related To Pornography Since 1973. Journal Of Sex Research, 53(1), 12-20. Doi:10.1080/00224499.2014.1003773

#porn's harm is changing fast

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williamexchange · 6 years ago

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Seven technology and marketing predictions from the 2010s that aged badly

We’re fast approaching the end of 2019, which aside from being the end of a year (with all of the traditional reflection and future-gazing that that entails) is also the end of a decade – which of course makes it a perfect time to look back on the last ten years and take stock of where we’re at.

A lot can happen in ten years, and the early 2010s were a pretty different time. The internet landscape was very different, social media was different, technology was in a different place, and marketing techniques and best practices in 2010 definitely looked different to what you would see today.

To put it into perspective, 2010 was the year that Apple released the iPad and just three years after the release of the iPhone. Twitter had been around for four years, Facebook for six, and Instagram launched in October of that year. We were still a year away from the launch of Snapchat, four years away from the launch of the Amazon Echo, and six years away from the adoption of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. A lot of the things that would shape the technology and marketing landscape as we know it today had yet to even come into existence.

As a result, many of the predictions about what the future would look like in the 2010s have turned out, in hindsight, to be hilariously off the mark. I should qualify this by saying that there are also a lot of predictions (of the many I read when researching this) that turned out to be surprisingly accurate, or that emerged in a slightly different form but were broadly correct even if some of the details varied.

But it’s also pretty funny to look back at some of the trends we thought would completely dominate the decade and realise, Wow, we were way off. It’s also interesting to look at why that was, and how things played out instead. So, here are seven marketing and technology-related predictions from the 2010s that have aged, in hindsight, pretty badly.

1. “QR codes will be the future of mobile marketing”

I had to start off with the big one – probably the most memorable and most-ridiculed fad of the early 2010s, and the one that will go down in marketing history as a spectacular flop: QR codes, those blocky, black-and-white (or sometimes creatively-patterned) squares of code that when scanned with your phone would take you to a webpage.

QR codes were first invented in 1994 by Japanese company Denso Wave, and they had a couple of different moments in the limelight, but Peak Hype for QR codes (at least in the west) was probably 2011. According to statistics published by comScore, in June 2011 14 million mobile users in the US – about 6.2% of the country’s total mobile audience – scanned a QR code on their mobile device.

If you lived in a country like the USA or the UK in 2011, you probably remember how QR codes were absolutely everywhere. Every ad had one, every brand had found a way to integrate QR codes into their marketing material – regardless of whether there was a genuine use case for them. They were the in thing, and a lot of commentators predicted that they would become even more ubiquitous as brands fine-tuned their use in mobile marketing.

But the backlash against QR codes was already building, and by March 2012, Forbes had published an article querying whether QR codes were dead. Econsultancy published a round-up of dubious uses of QR codes in January of the same year which illustrates a lot of the problems with the way QR codes were being implemented by brands and advertisers. Some brands persisted with them for a few more years, but ultimately, QR codes were considered a fading fad by then and their reputation for failure had already set in. We featured QR codes in a 2014 round-up of mobile marketing trends that didn’t live up to the hype.

QR codes have a lot of potential as a means for linking online and offline – we only have to look to China and parts of Southeast Asia, where they’re used for everything from convenient mobile payments to brand activations and app installations, to see how QR codes could have succeeded. But in the west in 2011, few smartphones had an in-built QR code reader, and the mobile web was still in its infancy, meaning that scanning a QR code required a lot of effort for very minimal reward.

QR codes are still around in a limited form – you see them on a lot of food packaging, and in our loyalty apps and mobile passbooks – and there’s been talk of a potential comeback, but ultimately their gimmicky, pointless reputation has proven difficult to shake. We probably won’t see QR codes making a sudden comeback at any time in the 2020s.

Other incarnations of augmented reality have also had difficulty getting off the ground. A lot of early smartphone-based AR was notoriously clunky and impractical; the vision that everyone had of gorgeous digital graphics seamlessly overlaid on reality didn’t really match up to the tech. Despite its lofty ambitions of creating a visual search engine for the world or an ‘AR browser’, Blippar ultimately collapsed into administration last year after burning through more than $130 million in funding (before being bought out of administration and installing a new CEO). AR enjoyed a return to the limelight in 2016 with the release of Pokémon Go, but again, the hype failed to translate into any kind of more widespread adoption.

AR hasn’t gone away – beauty companies are currently making great use of it as a means of virtually trying on different nail shades and make-up looks, now that the technology has advanced to the point that it can be executed well. The Ikea Place app, which visualises furniture in your living room, is another genuinely good use case. But the future that many envisioned with the advent of Google Glass, Blippar and later, Pokémon Go, hasn’t really arrived in any meaningful way. For now, AR is still a niche phenomenon.

3. “[Insert name of new social network here] will kill Facebook”

The 2010s have seen the transformation of Facebook from the hot, new social network to an almost unstoppable juggernaut, with so many of the decade’s defining advertising and marketing trends, from clickbait to the ‘video revolution’, livestreaming to privacy fears, playing out on and shaped by Facebook.

As its rise has continued, commentators have repeatedly predicted – or hoped – that whatever hot new social network is currently trending will be the ‘death of Facebook’. Here are just a few of those would-be Facebook killers:

Path (2010-2018): A mobile photo-sharing and messaging network that limited a user’s social circle to just 50 friends, it was widely viewed as an antidote to Facebook at a time when usage of the social network was exploding, and many found their feeds full of people they weren’t really that interested in interacting with. Path was seen as a breath of fresh air, and at one time Apple was reportedly in talks to acquire it.

Unfortunately for Path, Facebook successfully replicated a lot of its pioneering features, like reactions and emoji stickers; the company was also dogged by a data collection and privacy scandal in 2012 (so it was ahead of Facebook in that regard). Path was sold to South Korean internet company Kakao for an undisclosed amount in 2015, and ultimately closed down in 2018.

Ello (2014-): Ello, a social network that built its premise around the notion that “You are not a product” and refused to carry ads, enjoyed a rapid rise to fame in a period when public opinion was turning against the increasingly commercial nature of Facebook and other major social networks. Facebook was also mired in one of its many ‘real name scandals’ at the time, giving Ello the perfect opportunity to present a privacy-focused alternative.

Of course, it didn’t last – Ello wasn’t able to capture users’ attention beyond the initial interest or gain enough critical mass for a serious migration, Facebook sorted out its privacy scandals, and people went back to using it. Interestingly, Ello reinvented itself later and focused more heavily on visual social media – it’s still up and running as a platform for artists and creatives.

Google+ (2011-2018): Remember when Google+ was seen as a viable social network and people thought it would kill Facebook? No? For a few years in the early 2010s, it looked a lot like Google’s new social network was going to be the thing that killed off Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg certainly thought so. It was new, it was cool, and it was linked to your Google account – making it easy to set up a profile, which gave Google an edge in early growth. Google+ also gained a lot of traction with marketers due to the perception that Google+ posts were favoured by Google’s search algorithm.

Numerous post-mortems have dissected exactly where Google+ went wrong – I even wrote one myself when the shutdown of Plus was announced in October 2018. In short, Google+ failed to do anything particularly different from Facebook, and the few interesting features it did have weren’t enough to convince people to switch. Users also resented Google’s attempt to foist Google+ on them by linking it to other Google-owned services, like YouTube. Ultimately, Google+ became just another item on Google’s long list of failed ventures – and the list of failed ‘Facebook killers’.

Snapchat (2011-): Snapchat, with its viral popularity among younger internet users, was once considered a serious threat to Facebook – to the point that Mark Zuckerberg made multiple attempts to acquire it. Snapchat turned them down, and so instead Facebook resorted to duplicating its most unique feature, Stories, on Instagram (and Facebook, and WhatsApp). The move worked, and Instagram Stories far outstripped Snapchat in popularity.

Snapchat is of course still alive and kicking, and though it’s had some tough times in recent years, it has been making a decent comeback with the release of a new Android app design, and is seeing renewed user growth, retention and engagement. But Facebook ultimately came closer to killing Snapchat than Snapchat came to killing Facebook.

4. “Tablet computing will explode”

This was a common prediction in marketing and technology circles for a couple of years after Apple released the iPad in 2010. At the time, many predicted that tablets and e-readers like the Kindle Fire would revolutionise computing, providing a sleeker, more portable alternative to a desktop computer or laptop, but with more power and screen real-estate than a smartphone.

While this wasn’t completely wrong, as tablets did enjoy a brief heyday from about 2010 to 2012, it didn’t last very long either. Smartphone screens got bigger and their functionality improved, while laptops became lightweight and more portable. Ultimately, tablets didn’t replace either of these devices, but they were an important ‘bridge’ during the years before smartphones and laptops had improved enough to fill that gap in the market.

5. “Virtual reality will go mainstream”

Like its cousin augmented reality, virtual reality has had a bumpy ride when it comes to getting off the ground, with a few promising starts that ultimately didn’t live up to expectations.

Virtual reality hype predates the 2010s – VR technology has been around in some form since the 1970s, and commercial VR first started to seem viable in the 1990s. But the technology was clunky, expensive, and ultimately underwhelming – so things fizzled out for a couple of decades.

Enter the Oculus Rift, which was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter to the tune of $2.5 million in 2012, and was purchased by Facebook two years later for close to $3 billion. It kicked off a wave of virtual reality interest and enthusiasm, with competing headsets produced by Valve, Sony, Google, Microsoft and numerous others. Brands were quick to jump on the bandwagon with VR marketing campaigns, which were seen as a way to connect with consumers in a memorable and immersive way, particularly in industries with a less tangible product offering, like travel.

But the predictions that VR headsets would sweep the mainstream within a year or two and change the way we consume content forever turned out to be premature. VR struggled with many of the same issues that plagued it back in the 90s: headsets were still unwieldy (even if they’d come a long way from the bulky rigs of two decades ago), the price point was too high, they were seen as too anti-social and/or the sole province of hardcore gamers. Even games developers were stymied, due to the sheer number of different devices available to develop for. Which one should they cater to?

Virtual reality headsets still have a place in consumer entertainment, but the hype among brands and marketers has long died down, and it seems that we’re still searching for that elusive factor that will tip VR over into the mainstream. The recent revelations that Facebook intends to use people’s Oculus Rift data for ad targeting – despite explicitly denying that it would do so – probably won’t help matters.

6. “Voice will be the next revolution in search/ecommerce/user interaction”

Excitement around voice search and voice interfaces has been a pervasive trend during the 2010s. First, the hype was oriented around mobile voice search and the idea of voice search on the go, before shifting to smart speakers, voice apps, and the internet of things more generally following the advent of the Amazon Echo.

But despite the continued certainty among many commentators that a ‘voice-first revolution’ is just around the corner, it still hasn’t arrived. While Google announced at its I/O developers conference in 2016 that voice queries made up 20% of all searches on Android and in the Google app in the US, it was huge news – but Google has been quiet on the subject ever since, and has yet to issue an updated statistic. Many were sure that voice commerce would be a huge trend thanks to the Echo’s link to Amazon, but consumers don’t seem interested – internal figures leaked to The Information last year revealed that only 2% of people who owned Amazon Echo devices had used them to make a voice purchase. And despite the plethora of brands and agencies developing voice apps and experiences, there is a dearth of case studies indicating that they’ve yielded any results.

There are a number of theories as to why voice hasn’t managed to take off despite its potential, ranging from self-consciousness about speaking aloud in public to concerns about security and privacy, the lack of a visual, lack of a clear use case for voice, and issues with the user experience. In my opinion, it’s due to a combination of all of these, but particularly the last two – the others are issues that could be overcome if consumers had more of an incentive to overcome them. As I wrote in my previous piece about the lack of case studies for voice,

“Smart speakers and other voice-controlled devices are an attractive novelty to consumers, but so far, they can’t achieve anything that isn’t already possible with a smartphone or computer. […] For [a voice revolution] to happen, voice will need to have much, much more to offer consumers than a slightly more useful way of compiling a shopping list.”

7. “Social commerce will be the next big thing”

Technically this prediction has come true in the 2010s, but I’m including it on the list because it had a lot of false starts, and for most of the decade seemed like a trend that would never take off.

A lot of marketing predictions over the past decade revolved around social media and commerce merging to create an environment that allowed people to shop on the same platforms they used to socialise, or socialise on the same platforms they used to shop – either thanks to the emergence of new dedicated platforms for social commerce, or the introduction of commerce features to social platforms, such as with Facebook Marketplace or ‘Buy’ buttons on platforms like Twitter and Pinterest.

All of these things did happen, but none of them took off in the way that was expected. Social commerce platforms opened, gained a bit of interest, and ultimately flopped or remained niche phenomena. Social networks introduced commerce features, but they were under-used, and many were ultimately dropped. In some cases, this was due to the friction associated with making a purchase – Facebook Marketplace, for example, didn’t have an in-built payments mechanism until the advent of Facebook Pay in 2019, meaning that buyers and sellers had to arrange the transaction privately. In others, such as Twitter’s Buy button, it was because users weren’t in a shopping mindset when they used the social network.

Eventually, social commerce began to take hold on more visually-oriented social networks: after years of being used as a platform for design, fashion and shopping inspiration, Pinterest introduced Buyable Pins; similarly, when Checkout was introduced on Instagram earlier this year, businesses were already adept at using the platform to drive sales. And just like that, social commerce was a reality. In the end, the secret to success turned out to be introducing it on platforms where there was already a clear use case and demand, instead of trying to impose it from on high.

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

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Normally, the release of a new K-pop project would inspire trending hashtags and a rapturous reception from avid fans online. This week was different, though not for a lack of enthusiasm: Powerhouse group TWICE dropped their new album More & More on June 1, as protests over George Floyd’s death and police brutality continued across the U.S. and members of the music industry prepared to pause business as usual for “Blackout Tuesday,” a demonstration met with a mixed response. K-pop fans, who comprise one of the most active communities on social media, in turn created their own strategies to support the Black Lives Matter movement—starting with refraining from collectively using the usual K-pop-related hashtags on Twitter to avoid their favorite groups and artists trending above #BlackLivesMatter. In another scenario, fans flooded the Dallas Police Department’s iWatch Dallas app with K-pop fancams after the department called for tips on crimes from the protests, in an attempt to reduce the number of protest-related arrests. (Shortly after, the app was “down temporarily” due to “technical difficulties.”) In yet another, fans spammed the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag with more fancams and other K-pop memes to drown out racist messages.

And so More & More fell on the ears of its own dedicated fanbase, referred to as “Once,” in a more subdued environment, albeit one still full of eagerness to dissect and discuss new output from the group.

Even without the same level of activity around promotion, the nine-member group’s new album topped charts and broke records—as expected from one of the top acts from South Korea. Jihyo, Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung and Tzuyu are once again promoting their work as a complete group as member Mina is back from a mental health-related hiatus, and the members make their return after more than eight months since their last project, Feel Special.

Here are our main takeaways from More & More.

A darker turn, but still bright

Too often, K-pop girl groups are placed into one of two oversimplified categories: sweet and cheery, often manifesting in bubblegum pop, or “girl crush” with a fierce, badass vibe, frequently expressed through booming anthems. TWICE has been widely labeled as the former, but More & More proves that an expansive gray area lies between the extremes. Throughout the new album, TWICE shows that it can embrace a darker, more mature concept without giving up its trademark bright demeanor.

The more ominous undertones of this release were clear from the moment the trailer for “More & More,” the album’s lead single of the same name, was dropped in May. After nearly a minute of portraying the nine members in a lush garden with bunnies and butterflies, the video suddenly flashes to a two-toned, black and red shot of a serpent wrapped around a tree. The complete version of the music video builds on the theme of the Garden of Eden, depicting the members reaching for apples and preparing to take a bite. The serpent, along with imagery of tarantulas and a black cat, suggest a peace disturbed.

Further down the track list, the lyrics for “Shadow” reflect the album’s more somber direction. The opening lines, “Even when it hurts, I pretend to be fine, pretend to be a grown-up/ Hide the real me” describe a lonely experience of concealing one’s pain, the rise and fall of the melodic lines reflecting this inner turmoil. The track “Don’t Call Me Again” also carries a solemn note with lyrics addressing the gloom of a breakup: “Everything that used to be warm… Has become cold ashes,” vocalist Jeongyeon sings.

But TWICE did not forsake its signature upbeat tunes. “Oxygen” and “Sweet Summer Day” are summery tracks with playful rhythms, the latter transporting the listener to the beach with sounds of chirping birds and crashing waves. Written by Jeongyeon and rapper Chaeyoung, the lyrics of “Sweet Summer Day” say “Today I want to play like a kid/ Bright smile and face (smile bigger)/ Make yourself free with hot sun.” Reminiscent of the 2018 track “Dance the Night Away,” whose music video began with waves crashing onto a beach, the song conveys that TWICE does not need to drop its bubbly, youthful energy as the group evolves in its sound and messaging.

A variety of genres, but a cohesive storyline

Similar to TWICE’s 2019 albums Fancy You and Feel Special, this release brings with it a variety of genres. The title track “More & More” is a tropical house song that features an EDM-heavy instrumental chorus. And while the Latin-inspired “Firework” opens with a smooth and sleek guitar line, “Don’t Call Me Again” starts with a booming refrain from brass instruments, cymbals and drums. The album might have been disjointed, yet More & More is one of TWICE’s most cohesive albums, in large part because its seven songs build on a progressing storyline.

If “More and More” acts as an opening on the theme of desire, the following tracks “Oxygen,” “Firework” and “Make Me Go” portray a romance that develops from a more innocent and dreamlike affection to a fiery love. In the next song, “Shadow,” a more serious tone conveys an underlying pain with lyrics like, “I don’t want to be seen as weak/ So I will hide obvious tears deep inside.” It’s as if the darker, hidden truths from the relationship described in the earlier songs are surfacing from the shadows.

The following number, “Don’t Call Me Again,” portrays a breakup in the most straightforward way. “Your apologies full of predictable stories and excuses again/ I’m not going to accept them, don’t call me again,” the intro reads. And while the closing track, “Sweet Summer Day,” appears to be disconnected as it does not reference love explicitly, the lyrics paint a picture of leaving behind the worries of yesterday and embracing a new beginning—a posture that could follow the end of a relationship. By illustrating the rise and fall of a romance followed by a fresh start, the messages in the seven tracks are more connected than their disparate sounds might suggest.

Their most passionate album yet

Two years ago, TWICE’s hit release “What Is Love?” featured the nine members drawing large question marks in the air as they repeatedly sang, “I wanna know know know know/ What is love?” That innocent curiosity has matured into a bold confidence as the lyrics in the new album openly express an unrestrained longing. “You’re gonna say more more more more more and more,” the pre-chorus goes, soon followed by “I wanna have more more more more more and more.” The repetition may sound excessive when written out, but it effectively conveys a kind of limitless desire between lovers.

In “Oxygen,” the artists sing that they yearn for someone more than they yearn for air, while in “Firework” they compare themselves to exploding pyrotechnics as they describe the burning sensation of love. But it’s the intimate beckoning in “Make Me Go,” a track with lyrics written by Nayeon, that particularly stokes the flame of passion. “Love me love me now/ Love me love me good/ Don’t need nobody else when it feels this good,” the members rap in deep voices—a departure from the more familiar high-pitched delivery. The sighs, oohs and ahhs peppered throughout “Make Me Go” only make the song more seductive. Plenty of songs on TWICE’s past few albums are filled with flirtatious lyrics, but this release kicks the heat up a notch.

Rappers sing and singers rap

Like most K-pop groups, TWICE has designated roles: vocalists, rappers, dancers. But its rappers sing and its singers rap. The group’s rappers, Dahyun and Chaeyoung, have sung in past releases. This album spotlights their versatility even more, beginning with the singing parts in the hook of “More & More.” The two members also sing in the tracks that follow, from “Oxygen” to “Shadow.”

The singers also rap in More & More. “Make Me Go” is the most notable example. Nayeon and Jihyo, known for their stable singing and high notes, both rap in the track’s chorus. “Ain’t nobody around, do it like you should,” they say in a low register barely above a whisper. Mina, a vocalist with a soft and mellow tone, also raps these lines—adding an element of surprise as the artist displays a different type of charm. The final track, “Sweet Summer Day,” highlights rap verses from vocalists as well. Nayeon once again shows off a new kind of swagger, and Momo, the group’s main dancer who usually sings, raps with attitude. No member is confined to one set of skills—showing, yet again, that TWICE is a versatile ensemble keen on surprising their audience.

#Blogger

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jerometbean · 5 years ago

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source https://spsreviews.com/tnt-traffic-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tnt-traffic-review from SPS Reviews https://spsreviewscom1.blogspot.com/2020/05/tnt-traffic-review-honestly-best.html

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gertrudejnieves · 5 years ago