Denuo - denuology.com

Ah, Instagram. The perfect app? It checks all the boxes of success: explosive growth out of the gate with near universal praise plus a quick acquisition for a ridiculous sticker price. And, it’s still growing.

What makes Instagram, Instagram? Why was this the app that turned us all into photographers and not Hipstamatic or another of the countless filter apps that came onto the scene at the same time? Why did Instagram’s now cliche aesthetic (heavy filters + square photos) catch on?

If I tweet from our account and that teet contains the word “millennial” it will receive twice the clicks as anything else we share, without fail. Our followers clamor for any and all information they can find about how young people work, play, connect and consume. If I didn’t know better (or weren’t 27 years old) I might think the term describes a race of confusing, tiny screen addicted, glowing faced aliens. Why are Millennials such an interesting cohort to dissect and study? Cultural observers (especially those of us in advertising/marketing) have always tried to decode the world of the young and coming of age among us. We attempt to chart trend lines into the future and predict where we are headed based on the lives and actions of those that will help build that future. So why are Millennial’s so hard to nail down?

We live in our digital streams. More and more of our lives are spent scrolling through endless feeds of pretty pictures, flashing gifs and smart articles we wish we had time to read.  We’ve got Google Reader accounts packed to the gills, Tumblr dashboards that never seem to quit and Twitter feeds that often move faster than we can comprehend. I am both enamored with the perfectly curated content that bubbles up to the surface of my feeds and crippled by their constant bombardment. I even made a site that tracks nearly everything I consume in an attempt to quantify the ridiculous rate at which we now take in. No matter how much I scroll, read, watch, like and tweet, the “work” is never done. And that’s the biggest issue, why does this feel like work?!

In just a few years hashtags have emerged from their nerdy origins on IRC to become the way we organize the never slowing flood of information and conversation buzzing around the Interwebz. Most sites now recognize hashtags and more and more people understand what they are all about. Sure, I still use hashtags most for Twitter punch-lines and Instagram lolz. But, as time goes on the world of hashtag-ery becomes more and more mainstream. You can’t watch TV these days without a bombardment of networks telling you to use #GLEEfan4lifeyall to discuss the latest episode. This growing understanding of how hashtags work means their purpose has expanded and culturally, they matter. They helped propel the Arab Spring, fight bullying, and take down a warlord (kind of).

As with anything digital, people are constantly finding intriguing new ways to use #hashtags. They are organizing chaos and re-imagining how we collect memories and retell stories.

We live in an amazing time. A time when a photography app with 13 employees . A moment when a failing gaming startup can be saved (to the tune of $200 Million) by their digital clone of a classic board game. While indicative of current bubble/not-a-bubble arguments going on in every VC boardroom on earth, these are simply stories. Blog worthy deals that make for great headlines. These are the flashy tales most admired and what draws the attention of the masses. But, lets zoom out and think about the larger trend going on here: We are witnessing technology chip away at industries, norms and assumptions that have been in place for so long most people fail to notice just how broken they are.

This is a time for connecting the dots. A time when teams are building tools that threaten decades old businesses and centuries old institutions. These digital tools of today are being bootstrapped in dorm rooms and conceived on whiteboards spread throughout the Valley and the Alley and the Loop. They are hustling to dismantle the business models of the past and fix problems that have been bugging our collective consciousness for far too long.

That’s the nature of disruption.