Why globalization and instant gratification are separating us.

Besides the obvious reason that people have opinions about just about everything and they show it all too often on a constant social media feed, globalization is creating winners and losers in the world, and that is dividing people more deeply than ever. Look at the super-rich class that globalization has created; and the billions of super-poor that support their lifestyle and who live (or die) by the decisions of those super-rich world owners. Our over connected world is is quickly becoming a disjointed one.

The evidence can clearly be seen in the recent Brexit vote. It certainly tore apart a Britain that collectively thought, before, while differences of opinion existed, it was a unified country. Wrong. Nobody saw it coming. Smaller, provincial British communities that have been marginalized by globalization and government austerity measures showed their anger with the Brexit vote, and they won. These communities, like so many other marginalized groups, are in a collective blind spot that affects most of the world, and certainly, marketers and creatives.

Old are divided from young, workers from retirees, rich from poor, races from races, men from women, etc. We should all be thinking: who are we listening to when we create media and content? Are we being inclusive, like Britain thought it was? Are we paying attention to all demographics, not just Millennials, and Generation Z because they’re the ones that will soon have the power? As a society, and as creators, are we listening to everyone or just the ones we want to see because they are the easiest to see?

The instant gratification part is an epidemic of modern society as a whole; we are more connected than ever but less present. We want immediate likes on our facebook posts and followers on Twitter and Instagram, but we “just can’t” with real life.

Again, as marketers, we have to understand this and understand to whom we are pitching our product or company. We need to take a long, hard look at who our audience is. Because whether we like it or not, there are billions of people being excluded from our world-view every single day.

It would be great to take a stand and call for connectedness. Connectedness in a real sense – like people actually going out and talking to each other. It would probably result in craziness, but who knows? As they say, “no publicity is bad publicity”.