This Is the Most Substantial Cultural Shift of Our Time

People are always people. We haven’t changed and we never will. That’s just the way it is.

What’s changing around us are the platforms that dictate our lives.

When the railroads were built, the world changed. When planes arrived, the world changed. When television was invented, guess what? The world changed.

But the biggest, most substantial culture shift for humankind happened extremely recently. In the span of all humanity, it feels like it was only forty five minutes ago. What I’m referring to happened in 1995 and 1996, when the masses started hitting the internet. We started becoming connected in a way that was never possible before. What the internet does is something very interesting — And when I say internet, I’m not even talking about all the sites we adore like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. I know, shocking. For a change, I’m not talking about specific social media.

Nope. I’m talking about the internet as a whole. And what it has done is it has made the stakes obnoxiously high. It has changed EVERYTHING.

And that’s what I want you all to be thinking about. This is bigger than Facebook. Bigger than Twitter. Bigger than all social media. I often talk about how if Facebook was gone tomorrow, I’d be fine. I actually can’t WAIT for Facebook dark posts to start sucking, because that means I have a new challenge to overcome. I have something new to attack. When you hustle like I do, you start to learn to look at the big picture. And Facebook isn’t the big picture. But the internet is.

So when you’re wondering how to reach your audience, whether it be through blogging, or ads, or social media, ask yourself: what is shifting for my fans? Consumers? Community members? No matter who you are trying to reach, the questions are the same. What platforms are they using to dictate their lives? Where do they spend their time?

Stop trying to meet people on your own terms. If you want to make a substantial impact on someone, meet them on their own territory. Find out where they spend their time, and how. Meaningful contact is made when you go out of your way to talk to someone. Why? Because it shows you care enough to know where they spend their time. And that rule applies in pretty much every aspect of life. Take the time to get to know someone, and reach out. That’s what this cultural shift has taught me. How to make myself more useful to people.

NOW someone try to tell me technology is pushing us apart.