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Final Notes One for the road
- Emerging from Creative Hell is a piece discussing Slow Media and its significance in the content and marketing landscape.
- I recommend reading through this if you are somebody that creates content online, works in content marketing, or has an interest in digital trends.
Much of the data that content producers rely on now is dependent upon people being online nearly constantly. When consumers decide that it is against their best interests to continue that habit, not only will the amount of data decrease, but the quality of it will as well due to having fewer points of reference to compare to. There will come a point when a lack of useful, quantitative data will lead to you needing to make a decision based on your own audience insight instead of the data. This is not only normal, it is a design feature of Slow Media. Users being tired of the fast media world we currently exist in at least partially stems from a distrust of data collection.1 If you are to completely respect your audience, then moving away from data harvested en masse must be a part of your solution to their problem.
Examples of Slow Media already exist, but since preference is down to personal taste I will only recommend one here for research: Patagonia Films.2 Since 2014, Patagonia has produced films that show our planet, its beauty, and how humans interact with it. The very same people that buy from Patagonia are both the subject matter and the audience. The audience sees themself in the subject, and they see the passion that the company has for the planet. I have referred back to these films for over a decade, before I even heard the term Slow Media. Please take time to find other examples of Slow Media that you enjoy. Then, analyze that media for why you enjoy it. Consider what parts of it are great to you. Think about what the creator was intending when making this piece. That will be as beneficial to you as anything I could write on my own.
Slow Media is a continuing part of the Slow movement. If you find that this way of creating and consuming media resonates with you, it is likely that other aspects of this movement may be of interest. To explore related topics, I recommend starting with the Wikipedia page on the Slow movement.3
As might be evident by the interest in the Slow movement, I value time highly, and I appreciate that you dedicated any amount of yours to read my thoughts. It is an honor to be able to write something that others may read and think critically about. Stay slow out there.
1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/garydrenik/2024/07/02/distrust-in-big-tech-fuels-adblocker-usage-among-52-of-americans/
2 https://www.patagonia.com/films/
3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_movement_(culture)