The premise is that many of us have become addicted to technology and the immense amount of real-time data that comes with it, and there are some negative impacts from this including the fact that in practical terms heavy multi-taskers are failing to actually be as productive as we think we are light multitaskers.

It suggests that the reason for this increased dominance of technology in our daily life is in part because it plays to our primitive impulses to respond to immediate opportunities and threats… and that the end result is that satisfying this urge ‘inflicts nicks and cuts on creativity and deep thought, interrupting work and family life’.

A partner of one heavy multitasker commented “It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment”.

IN the moment… to be honest, I kinda relate to this and I am wondering who out there also finds that technology can sometimes impact adversely on their creativity and productivity and relationships?

I guess we’ll never know while we have our eyes glued to our televisions, monitors, smartphones, gaming consoles, all things starting with a little i like ipad, and other electronic readers and so on.

Source Notes:

The full article by Matt Richtel can be found HERE.

The cartoon from those brilliant people at Joy of Tech.

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At one point they form an image of the ‘Mona Lisa’ with the various coloured LEDs on their back. Cool.

Apparently more than a million internet users have watched the viral video in the four days since it was released online.

The creators of the video revealed that they recruited Welsh national sheep herding champion Gerry Lewis, and a team of Welsh sheep herders to guide the flocks into position. They also admitted to the use of computer trickery – which in a sense is kinda of a pity so let’s just quickly brush over that revelation.

Matt Smith, the co-founder of ad agency The Viral Factory said:

The people on camera are real farmers and they were really controlling the sheepdogs. Rather than trying to fake it all we did it for real. The sheep herding bit is straight up – no trickery but there is a fair amount of computer trickery and post production work. We thought the Mona Lisa was the big wink to people – once they saw that we thought they would realise it was not all real. But we have been quite surprised that there is still a debate about whether it is all real and people have been coming up with various theories.

Matt said the main problem on the shoot was not herding the sheep, but getting enough of them.

We filmed it at the end of last month and it is lambing season so we could not disturb the sheep that were lambing because it would have been too stressful. We used different sheep over the two day shoot because we couldn’t have them running around all day. We didn’t give them any treats because they got to wear an LED coat – I can’t think of anything better. The video is silly and joyful. This one has caused a real stir.

Here’s the ad – enjoy the cast, their flock of stars and their combined efforts… and forgive the computer trickery.. if you spot it that is. (we could tell you but then we’d have to have you with mint sauce!)

So how successful do you think their efforts were? Did it sell more Samsung product?

That we don’t know. But a quick show of hands indicated that this ad was a huge hit with the staff at FACTOR168 and the real testiment to the success of this ad was when we questioned friends and regulars at our local coffee haunt – a surprisingly large number of people remembered the ad and almost all associated it with Samsung.

This strong and positive recollection was, despite a considerable amount of time having passed since the ad went ‘viral’, pretty impressive to say the least.

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Smart, brave, savvy, edgy, timely and consistent with the cultivation and management of their brand personality. This time, Virgin Mobile have stepped forward with a fabulous cross-medium event marketing idea. Nice one.

The idea has crystallized itself in a carefully engineered popculture ‘movement’ called Right Music Wrongs – which neatly dovetails into the Virgin Mobile branded V Festival.

When you have a precious spare moment, check out the super short manifesto on their website and the entire rational becomes… well crystal clear.

For those that are happy to take my word for it -in a nutshell, Virgin Mobile argues that music should not be about quantity, as in how many tens of thousands of MP3 tracks you own but rather how good your tracks are. And of course it may all come down to personal tastes and preference. And this is best illustrated by those musical hits that have sold in the gazillions (which is a lot even on Duran Duran’s Planet Earth) of copies but the question posed is – does quantity equal good?

Bands with their songs are put forward by the readership of the website and the faithful are invited to review each candidate and determine whether they are indeed guilty or innocent… of musical crimes against humanity I’m guessing.

But I digress. What this website has done for Virgin Mobile so effectively is squarely targeted its youthful, tech-savvy, and opinionated target demographic. In establishing the website, there was a progress marketing strategy of raising the profile and participation of the website through a mix of advertising mediums and starring one of the most famous of potentially guilty one hit stars.

The ‘star’ engaged to kick off this campaign was the high recognition (and I suspect relatively cheap) and some say cringe worthy world’s ‘first’ white rapper Vanilla Ice with his global hit “Ice Ice Baby”.

The Virgin Mobile guys and gals brilliantly reinvented him as a cause célèbre of epic proportions as means of activating their audience. Seems to have worked.

People flocked to the website to cast their ancient Roman inspired thumbs up or thumbs down… and much to the surprise of everyone, Australia declared Vanilla Ice innocent of all charges. A masterstroke in their campaign was to have the forgiven Vanilla Ice come out of ‘retirement’ (although I can reveal that he wasn’t actually that retired or retiring… I saw him in of all places a Hong Kong nightclub performing two years prior… very odd) and star… well contributed a featured performance at Virgin’s proprietary music gathering – V Festival.

Below is one of the successful video clip trailers featuring Vanilla Ice seeking forgiveness for his popculture crimes and inviting people to cast their votes at the website (oh and kinda slowly slowly be indoctrinated into a Virgin Mobile world). He apologizes…well for pretty much everything, all the while his instantly recognizable track is beating in the background. Product and brand awareness raised, traffic was strong to the campaign website.

I voted innocent and I still love this song to this very day… yes i know. I also like MC Hammer so there you have it. Oh shush. Check out the homepage and my vindication with the majority judgment of his innocence. Yay… curse you Virgin Mobile, I’m getting hooked! Word!

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Sure, it’s comfortable, safe and I guess perfectly acceptable but eventually the aged but much loved couch starts to lose its sense of value.

If neglected, one invariably starts to consider other more appealing couches that offer more than just a functional legacy. Perhaps a more appealing, more contemporary, better conditioned couch that better fits our lifestyle and needs just that little bit better.

In our opinion, pretty much all businesses over time evolve into my Grandma’s couch.

And they keep evolving if neglected straight from the living room to the garage and in turn to the refuse tip weighted down by all the other items that had lost their appeal.

Of course this can be avoided by applying the mantra; you know the one – embrace change and evolve. Armed with this outlook, a collection of great ideas, and most importantly a sense of personal and organizational courage – you can re-envision Grandma’s couch. Revitalise and refresh it by considering where and how it could be better employed into the future, perhaps refurb it or better still apply a styling makeover.

The thing is, even with courage, the application of great ideas can be challenging. It is the nature of great ideas that they can be demanding. Ideas can be pushy and hard work but that’s kinda why they are so powerful and energizing for everyone involved.

Okay so perhaps your Grandma’s couch may not evolve into something way cool. Like a clunky Sony cassette walkman into an intuitive stylish Apple iPod or a telephone handset morphing into a next to no cost communication experience via Skype – but it might very well become the very best and most appealing couch around. Couch couture.

Let’s face it – we all like to sit down. If it means sitting down with a couch (or business) we already have a pre-existing relationship with or with a new impersonal one that doesn’t yet quite mould to our preferences for… well sitting – then I for one will take Grandma’s facelift couch every time.  Same with like-minded businesses who keep their appeal with great ideas.