• by May 11, 2004

MediaDailyNews:What concerns you most about our levels of media consumption?

Jeff Einstein: I think we're addicted to media. I don't think there's any other plausible explanation for the average 7+ hours we spend consuming media every day--at least according to your recent MediaPost survey. In fact, most other surveys indicate an average media consumption of ten hours daily. The three-hour discrepancy between the MediaPost survey and other media consumption surveys may reflect a natural--if not presumed--tendency for media professionals and consumers alike to underreport their actual media consumption. This, in turn, may reflect a signature characteristic of addiction at work: denial.

MDN:Why is this a problem?

Einstein: It's a problem because time and money devoted to our obsessions and addictions is time and money diverted away from the quality of life. It's a problem because our addiction to media is a subset of a broader addiction to our own technologies. In business, all we hear about is ROI-- about working faster, smarter, better. Our current obsession with ROI is a byproduct of our addiction to the electronic spreadsheet. But where's the ROI--in business or at home--if all of us are working harder and longer for fewer and fewer personal and professional returns? Faster, smarter, better turns out to be neither smarter nor better--only faster. It's a problem because we're accelerating away from ROI and into an Age of DROI: Diminished Return on Investment. If the medium is the message, what happens to the message when the medium is addictive?

MDN:What can we gain by focusing on what you call the digital downside?

Einstein: Functionally, our obsessions and addictions seize control of our internal dialogue like a military junta. They take over all internal debates, especially those central to the survival of the addictions themselves. So freedom of choice becomes the first casualty of all addiction. The first freedom we lose to our addictions is our freedom to opt out of them. Inertia--a primary byproduct and defense mechanism of addiction- -then becomes the preferred medium at the expense of true innovation and creativity. Albert Einstein once observed that no problem could be solved with the same thinking that created the problem. Whenever we confront our addictions, therefore, we break free of the same thinking that created the problem. We rediscover the opportunity to act. We regain our freedom of choice. We regain our ability to innovate. We regain our vision.

MDN:What do you recommend doing about this? What's the 12-step program for media and technology addictions?

Einstein: Remember, our addictions now moderate the debate, so the first critical function of our journey together is to challenge the assumptions promoted by the addictions themselves. First we need to invert the sales promises made on behalf of the technology. Simply stated, instead of examining all the great things digital technology can do for our businesses, we have to explore all the things digital technology is doing to our businesses. Instead of exploring how digital technology can help drive new business, we need to explore how digital technology inhibits new business development. Instead of exploring how digital technology helps us manage our clients, we need to explore how digital technology inhibits the growth of client loyalty. Instead of exploring how digital technology helps us realize our mission statements, we need to explore how digital technology threatens our mission statements.

MDN:How practical is it for people in the media business to kick the media habit? Won't we all be looking for new jobs?

Einstein: Eliminating our addiction to media--or anything else for that matter--is not a realistic ambition, and is certainly not the objective of Einstein's Corner. Media addicts--especially media professionals--can't eliminate media from their lives any more than a person with an eating disorder can stop eating entirely, or a married sex addict can choose permanent celibacy. We can't put the genie back in the bottle; once the addiction switch is activated in each of us, there's no way to deactivate it. The best we can do is find a way to deal with it. If we don't choose to deal with it proactively, it will most certainly choose to deal with us--and on much less friendly terms. I would prefer the former to the latter. Wouldn't you?