Commentary

From The Mouth Of Babes, Well, John Busby's, Anyway

That’s how John Busby, vice president of the Marches Institute, kicked off his luncheon presentation at MediaPost’s Mobile Insider Summit in Key Largo. Busby should know what he’s doing, because as head of research and analytics for a “digital call advertising company,” he focuses a great deal on what people do with their mouths, you know phone calls.

So who was the babe? Busby’s two- year-old daughter Lois, whom he showed several pictures of during his presentation, and related some highly relatable anecdotes about how she navigates all the material objects in her home. Using the popular toddler book, “Goodnight Moon,” Busby explained how he reads it to Lois each night, and as they say goodnight to all the objects in the home, she gets stymied on one: The phone.

Of course, Busby was referring to the classic, old-fashioned land-line, prompting Lois to rifle through his product of his mobile phone.

“She gets confused and rattled and thinks I’m playing a trick on her,” he said.

Busby’s real point is that Lois, like the toddler in the famous YouTube video who tries to swipe an analogue magazine page after using a iPad, is growing up without the kind of analogue media references we have.

She is, he said, an example of, “the first part of the first generation that has no context whatsoever for non-mobile communication.”

Wow, when you think about it that way, that’s something to think about. And call home about too.

 

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