Most of my career has been dedicated to communications, either in making tools for enabling it, or in trying to practice the art myself. My friends tend to be people of conscience, so they often question why I waste my time on activities that could be described as "marketing" or even as hype when there are much bigger challenges that my talents could be applied to.
Perhaps the best articulation of why I think communications matters is in this short TED talk by Rory Sutherland:
In short, Sutherland argues that we need to start to value intangible, emotional experiences and that marketing, communications and, yes, even advertising can help bring that about. By starting to place importance on experiences and appreciation instead of objects and consumption, we become more sustainable as a society while also becoming more creative as a culture.
A lot of people offered up criticism when I launched Last Year's Model, asking why I was just encouraging people to talk to each other instead of actually doing something. As it turns out, talking to each other is doing something.
Although I'm most assuredly a materialist (or more closely, not anti-materialism), I have found that I hesitate more to spend $2,000 on some electronic widget than I do to spend $2,000 on a flight and lodging. I've never thought "gee, I wish I didn't go to that city, or meet those people," but I've often thought "I wonder how much I could get for this widget on craigslist."
You mentioned to me the new phenomenon of people having really expensive cameras. That's interesting to me, because cameras represent both tangible and intangible values. I love the craftsmanship, features and operation of my camera, but it's the resulting pictures and the feelings they evoke that give the camera its value. But the pictures wouldn't have as much value if they just fell in my lap or if they just existed as mental snapshots in my mind. It's the fact that I created them with tools that I control that additionally gives them their value.
To me it's not about replacing tangible values with intangible values, but diversifying our values and staying curious about the world.
in the short time i've been reading you, i find you visionary. you're the only blogger on my igoogle start page. bravo, and thank you for sharing your talents and perceptions on the net.
I love words and I love communicating with words. Although you can talk any issue to death, it's worth the effort. It is how we exchange information, grow and learn.
A picture may paint 1,000 words, but it's the words that are important.