Digital Detoxes Drive Demand for Tactile Experiences

I posted recently about a backlash I think is likely within the next 1-2 years relating to AI. One of my reasons: people have innately valued authenticity and human experiences for millennia, and that’s not going to change. In fact, people push back as they perceive threats to those key values and ways of life.

There’s a recent poll (from the Harris Poll and Quad) that underscore these concepts and validate the thinking that there will be regression to the mean on these fronts. It shows this backlash is already happening around social and digital media.  

Consider these statistics (all from the same Harris Poll/Quad report):

• 75% of Americans say “digital detox” – a simpler relationship with technology – is a lifestyle upgrade.

• 55% are deleting apps from their phones or devices, and 43% have taken a total break from social media.

• 82% of Gen Z report that taking breaks from social media improves their mental health – up 6 points from last year.

• Physical experiences are gaining appeal: 84% say owning physical items is more satisfying than owning digital ones.

• Collecting things is a growing hobby: 79% of Gen Z say collecting physical objects helps them feel more connected to the real world.

Put simply: people have seen social/digital media for what it is. While it has brought a lot of value, people also have realized it’s no way to live; it can’t dominate a person’s time and attention to the extent it has for many. Gen Z in particular…they grew up with this technology, and they’re still dropping it in favor of older-school lifestyles.

What does this mean for us as professionals? Clearly, consumers in all forms desire more tactile, in-real-life experiences. So, as marketers/communicators, we need to feed that desire. We need to create multi-sensory experiences for our organizations’ stakeholders, and appeal to the changing wishes of an increasingly market-powerful generation.

I don’t think this means that we need to reinvent the wheel and create entirely new experiential programs for a new generation. I think it means that we carry forward much of the most effective work and thinking from the early 2000s – the kinds of things that were done just before this technology came to be.

As the pace of technological change continues to accelerate, I wonder if the pace of pushback will accelerate in tandem. We’ll see.