Here’s a quote we came across in our interviews;

“The image of being on a beach with your cell phone and your laptop is no longer an image of freedom. It’s an image of being tethered to your job.”
-Howard Rheingold, critic & writer

Remember when getting an “out of office” reply from an e-mail seemed uber professional, efficient and caring? Now, an “out of office” reply is cart blanche to begin full-on stalking the person. Who ISN’T “out of the office” these days? It’s akin to The Andy Griffith Show with the “gone fishing” sign. Our expectations have changed so much in the last five years that no excuse really forgives the lack of response. We need to know where next week’s meeting is…and we need to know it NOW! But as my high school nurse used to say “YOUR emergency isn’t necessarily MY emergency.” Kind of strange for a NURSE (of all people) to be poo-pooing emergencies, but I do see her point. So, we’re at a strange point in communication; there are no excuses for not responding within minutes…even if you’re truly “out of the office.”

Here’s a quote we came across in our interviews that kicks off the discussion:

“I find it odd that people make such weird distinctions between online life and offline life, mine are completely blurred.”
-Liz McLellan, Founder and Moderator of Hyperlocavore

Voluntarily carrying a smart phone and frequenting Wi-fi hotspots means we are constantly accessible. But does blurring online and offline life mean it’s inevitable that we’ll all be Tweeting during dinner, texting duing the movie, or checking in everywhere as soon as you arrive?

In the old days, your computer was not always online, and you had to make a conscious decision to connect your computer to the Web. Now it’s always connected at home and at work, and everywhere in between if you always carry your smartphone with you. I’ve seen people miss their kid making a goal in soccer because they were checking their email.

But it’s not just in real life that this blurring takes place. I’ve seen evidence of it all over social media. I recently connected with a friend I’d known in childhood. She’s an entrepreneur, and from her descriptions of her business, I think it’s a multi-level marketing gig,aimed exclusively at women. Her posts that appear on my news feed on Facebook are all business. Join me for a seminar. Join our team. See how our products can help the environment, help you live forever, and help you keep the skin of a 25-year-old. Other friends have hidden her posts. I will probably take a different tack, and suggest she concentrate those posts on her company page (of which I am not a fan). With my luck she’ll do that, and then become start a pig operation on Farmville, polluting my news feeds in a more intrusive way.

So where do you stand? How have you noticed yourself blurring the distinctions between online and offline? What examples have you seen of other people doing the same thing?

Thanks to our anywhere/anytime connection to everything and everyone, we no longer have a day, an hour, or a moment to rest. Instead of downtime, reflection, and recharging, now we have an endless agenda, a perpetual task list, and an overflowing inbox. We have equipped ourselves with technology that allows us to do more, but it also robs us of the chance to simply do nothing. Why bother with a calendar when every day is the same?

Within a few days we will put up some supporting quotes from our interviews that illustrate the End of Sunday.

We’re interested in what you think. Has this been your experience? Do you run into challenges finding downtime?  If you work in a creative field, when do you have time to recharge? If you’re in a management role, when do you have time to let things percolate? Whoever you are, when do you have time to daydream?

Meet Slouchy!

A Slouch Potato is a term describing what all of us will become, if we haven’t become one already: it’s a person (or ‘consumer’ if you’re a marketing type) completely immersed in his or her phone. This person is hunched over the device (that’s the Slouch) and unresponsive to the surrounding world (that’s the potato).

Think of the woman composing a tweet as she walks down the street. Think of the man checking in on Gowalla while his wife picks at her spinach salad in a restaurant. Think of yourself, updating your Facebook status while in the bathroom. Okay that last one may be a stretch. *cough*

The Slouch Potato presents the perfect symbol for how social media usage changes consumer behavior. Our smart phones become new appendages. Our physical posture forever alters. We become oblivious to our physical surroundings.

While it’s not new to huddle over your phone (we all knew Crackberry addicts in the last decade), widespread use of social media and its transition to the mobile platform will continue to have profound effects on how consumers interact with each other, with their devices, and with brands. That’s right. Brands will continue to be a part of our lives, even though the people who use social media proclaim they do not trust brand messages and view them as intrusions.

There are detractors. Let’s call them Spuddites. This group refuses to participate in social networks. They don’t carry a phone, unless it’s for “emergencies.” They’ll demand you put your phone down and actually look them in the eye when you meet in person. They are intolerant of your need to be constantly connected. Their numbers will grow, but they will always be in the minority. The pull of constant interaction and connection is too great. Watch as the people of the world all join together into a single race of Slouch Potatoes.

That’s the goal of this blog: to document the rise of the Slouch Potato Nation. By extension, this will involve examining how social media has altered, and continues to alter consumer behavior. We hope to achieve this goal with humor, insight, and the unyielding pursuit of coining new buzzwords. We are not journalists. We’re not social marketing gurus. We are social media enthusiasts, users, and content creators who look at things from a strategic perspective.

For whom is this blog written? If you’re still reading this post, this blog’s for you.  Let us know how we’re doing. Comment or tweet it up. Our hashtag is #slouchpotato.