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The Experience Age
Welcome to the Experience Age!
But when did we leave the Information Age?
What is the difference?
As defined by Wikipedia, The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age) is a period in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization.
So, really, we have not left the Information Age fully, but one major aspect of nearly everyone’s daily lives has. That would be social media.
Remember your first Myspace or Facebook page? It was exciting being able to share status updates, music or pictures. I remember scrolling for hours looking for a cool Myspace background image. It was your little piece of the internet that you could share any information on.
How often do you post status updates on Facebook now? If it’s not very often, you’re not alone.
Mike Wadhera on TechCrunch puts forth the idea of the Experience Age. He describes the shift from sharing statuses from desktop computers to the mobile device connected world we live in now. He is completely accurate on his assessment of the way technology is taking us.
With the massive amount of information available to us, attention spans have gone down. If you are like me and most the people I know on social media, you mindlessly scroll through looking for pictures, exciting news or major life events on Facebook. Reading somebody’s status update really isn’t exciting as it once was. Really, the only reason why I use Facebook news-feed is F.O.M.O. on somebody’s major life event. 
What is exciting, though, is Snapchat, Instagram, and even more recently Facebook Live. Instead of a person writing a status about being at an event, they can show the event as it is happening. I would much rather see what is happening than reading about it. It is unbelievably easy to share your experiences in real time. It doesn’t matter if your Snapchat is deleted right away, what is important is that you shared the experience with your friends. It is no longer stored as information on a profile, which is what built the Information Age. Same goes for Instagram. Although it is stored on your profile, you are able to share a picture instantly of your location to let other users experience your same view.
I only see the future going more and more in this direction. Facebook has noticed this trend with it’s Facebook Live feature. They realize that people would now rather live stream their lives than write a status about them. I look forward to seeing how technology will keep advancing this new frame of mind within social media users.
Share your comments below!
I’ll admit that I do not use the newer social media platforms like Snapchat or Instagram as I do not feel the need. But I am a little older than you and rely mostly on Facebook for business. I am more quiet about my personal life and do not share a lot with people about it other than very close friends and family.
My niche happens to focus on people 45 and older and according to statistics, Facebook, Google +, and Pinterest are my best options. I would definitely use whatever draws the crowd however, so if anything changes I will adapt for sure.
It is interesting to see how things evolve over time. I learned something new today, actually 2 things. One, the Facebook Live (never knew anything about it and I will be checking into it). Do you think this is valuable for business? Also, F.O.M.O? Never heard of it until I just googled it :-). Now I know!
Hi Donna,
I am glad to hear you learned a couple of things! I am not sure yet how valuable Facebook Live will be to businesses but I am interested in seeing it’s potential in the future! Thanks for commenting!