"One man's ceiling is another man's floor."

- Paul Simon

On or about December 21, 2012 (CE) at 11:11GMT, the world will end. At least that’s what some people believe based on the fact that the oldest of all calendars begins in 3114 (BCE) and ends just this side of 5,000 years later. The Mayans created the calendar. And for whatever reason, they chose not to look beyond this day.

For fun, try sampling the myriad view points regarding the “meaning” of the end of the Mayan calendar. It’s tasty stuff. If you dig around long enough and link from one source to the next, to the next, and so on, you’ll trip over certain information that comes up over and over again. Take this little morsel for example.

In the year 2012, the Internet will be the largest advertising medium in the world.

This, of course, is a prediction based on patterns and trends that have been observed by industry experts. Which is precisely what a calendar does. It predicts the movement of the planets, the moon, even solar cycles and other recurring phenomena based on tireless observation. It gives us something concrete in a world of uncertainty. We know tomorrow will be Thursday, May 8, 2008. And we take comfort in knowing that.

But will tomorrow bring us one step closer to the end of media as we know it? Will tomorrow be a world where the Internet is the ONLY medium?

Certainly not. For however virtuous the Internet may be as a communication channel and a way to connect with anyone anywhere in the world, it lacks certain attributes that feed the human need to experience things that are tactile and to connect with others out in the real world. Thus, despite many arguments to the contrary, the Internet is no more a sign of the the end of all other media than the end of the Mayan calendar is a sign of the end of the world.

It’s possible that 2012 doesn’t mark an “ending” at all, rather, the beginning of a cosmic cycle that began somewhere around August 11, 3114 (BCE).

In the same respect, the Internet isn’t the nemesis of all other media. Rather, it is a tool that enables us to begin thinking differently and more vastly about how we will communicate with each other four and a half, 20, 100, or even 5,000 years from now.

It’s quite possible, however, that “advertising” as we understand it may be coming to an end. Because people are and always will be the largest and most effective advertising medium. No matter what happens in the year 2012.

What if people were the only advertising medium? How might that change what you do daily?

 

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Tags: Digital, Internet, Interpretation, Observation, Patterns, Prediction

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