Today’s Social Communities Offer Much to Engage but What Inspires True Change?
By Marcy Walsh (mwalsh@crt-tanaka.com and @marcywalsh)
Nancy Reagan told me to “Just Say No” when I was 11 years old, and I wanted nothing more than to jump into step in my crisp white button down, red bow tie, plaid skirt, knee highs and brown loafers. I was sold on her message and didn’t even laugh at the public service announcements with the kids saying “NO” to the drug dealers. I was mesmerized by “This is Your Brain on Drugs” and the weekly after-school specials that addressed the many topics facing my generation: drugs, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, runaways, eating disorders, smoking and sexually transmitted diseases. If there wasn’t an afterschool special, you can bet that Little House on the Prairie, The Facts of Life, One Day at a Time, or some other popular television series was talking to my teen need to avoid the perils of life. Needless to say, I just said no to it all. Until college. And then I only said yes to what was legal. Moving on.
All these memories flooded recently after watching one of the most interesting YouTube videos shared with me in a long time by a Facebook friend. The video illustrates – literally – Professor Philip Zimbardo’s take on the concept of Time orientation and the implications how we perceive time on societies, families, successes, failures… and, yes, even the afterschool special consumer education campaign.
In this 10-minute video (worth every second), Zimbardo walks us through three ways people perceive time: 1. Past (both people who live based on the past, both those who bring a positive spin on the past and those who bring a negative implication of the past into life); 2. Present (both people who believe in living in the present because they can’t control the future and those who are driven by more hedonistic present life desires); and Future – those who live to make life better in the future. He cites Robert Levine’s Geography of Time, in which Levine outlines his experiments on the pace of life in cities and countries around the world and the implications on health, education and even family values.
The afterschool special “a-ha!” moment for me comes at the end of the video. Zimbardo states that in America a child drops out of school every nine seconds. He says this is particularly a “disaster for boys in America” because by the time they are 21, individually boys have spent 10,000 hours playing video games. They live in a world that they create, and their brains are being digitally rewired, he says. Because of this, traditional schooling in which a teacher lectures and students take notes does not work for these kids. They can only truly learn by being in a situation in which they are controlling something and they have instant gratification.
Most consumer education campaigns targeting teens (people in general really) are designed for the future-oriented – such as the Nancy Reagan kids of the 80s. I was afraid of future consequences and so took action. However, for those who are more present-oriented, there is this challenge: they know the consequences, but the knowledge doesn’t change the behavior. Our consumer education campaigns designed to speak to them must move beyond the public service announcement and into something they can control. And today’s social communities, with crowdsourcing, user-generated content, sharing and personalization, provide the perfect way to engage them.
And while the tools to manipulate and participate in their own educations are there – the video leaves me wondering what the role is of time orientation in changing consumer behavior. The knowledge is there… a mere Google trip away. But what is the secret sauce that can move present-oriented people to change their behavior? From obesity to debilitating debt, how can the consumer education campaigns today inspire individuals to take action so these societal issues don’t perpetuate?
I personally miss the afterschool special. What are the most successful consumer education campaigns in the past few years?
That is a great video, and a fascinating topic. It is too bad the video game playing boys aren’t Outliers, because 10,000 hours is the magic number in Gladwell’s book one needs to put into a skill to be successful.
I think the fresh produce industry has done a lot to educate consumers about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables for ones health, weight, chronic disease prevention and happiness. While it can often fall on deaf ears to young adults, children are often very receptive. Programs like http://www.veggiecation.com and resources from Produce for Better Health can only be bolstered by Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign. I think the challenge is to integrate activities and mediums so that the message can reach the future, present and past-oriented people.
I suggest that it will take one (or several) of those multiplayer interactive online games where players jump in, create themselves an avatar, and start participating. However, those that make bad food choices and don’t exercize would lose energy and gain weight, while those who make better choices would outperform them. Build various kinds of practical learning into it. If they don’t manage their money wisely, they will not be able to afford to eat, etc.
It may take a large community of developers and specialists to work in ways to have the activity options teach practical lessons, but these game evolve over time, so new features (and lessons) could be added gradually. It would probably be a point of pride for would-be game designers to participate in a massive oper-source project like this. The big cost would be to obtain sponsors for the website and server capacity to support it.
Video games could be used to teach behavior. Here’s a link to an article about someone who is trying it:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1669932/behavioral-videogames?partner=homepage_newsletter
Thanks for the comment and the article! That is a great article and really gave food for thought. I think the key is to develop something in which we ask people to do one simple thing and they get immediate gratification (rewards). I wonder how they are measuring the game’s impact on diabetes. Would love to learn more.