Are people getting lazier?

xReminisce said:

However, we have geniuses of each generation too, sadly, it's just overshadowed by degenerates or social media or famous people or idiots.
Since, media loves to broadcast things that will gives high ratings then old boring real news stuff.
Also, you need to understand that, while fishes population has dwindled down the past decade, humans went up instead.
View attachment 207552

World - Historical Population Data
Year	Population	Growth Rate
2022	7,953,952,567	1.00%
2021	7,874,965,825	1.03%
2020	7,794,798,739	1.05%
2019	7,713,468,100	1.08%
2018	7,631,091,040	1.10%
2017	7,547,858,925	1.12%
2016	7,464,022,049	1.14%
2015	7,379,797,139	1.16%
2014	7,295,290,765	1.17%
2013	7,210,581,976	1.19%
2012	7,125,828,059	1.20%
2011	7,041,194,301	1.21%
2010	6,956,823,603	1.22%
2009	6,872,767,093	1.23%
2008	6,789,088,686	1.24%
2007	6,705,946,610	1.24%
2006	6,623,517,833	1.25%
2005	6,541,907,027	1.25%
2004	6,461,159,389	1.25%
2003	6,381,185,114	1.26%
2002	6,301,773,188	1.27%
2001	6,222,626,606	1.29%
2000	6,143,493,823	1.31%

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/WLD/world/population

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Yeah but human intelligence has decreased.

as smart as you are I have higher attention than you!

https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/

jazzc said:

This is just an "urban myth". The same person who can't focus 10 seconds on reading Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ...can focus for 20 hours to binge watch Breaking Bad.

Attention has to do with interest. That's all.

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No, in advertising we know that banner blindness, online and offline has changed a lot due to desenzitivation of the human brain.

There is a lot of study about it in neuromarketing if you study this one day, it's interesting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/29/technology-is-on-the-rise-while-iq-is-on-the-decline/amp/
It's also due to infobesity, we are not spending so much time on a single piece of content like 10 years ago.

Instant gratification is not a myth, we are reacting to it and our behaviour is changing with it.

Willyfish said:

No, in advertising we know that banner blindness, online and offline has changed a lot due to desenzitivation of the human brain.

There is a lot of study about it in neuromarketing if you study this one day, it's interesting.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo...s-on-the-rise-while-iq-is-on-the-decline/amp/
It's also due to infobesity, we are not spending so much time on a single piece of content like 10 years ago.

Instant gratification is not a myth, we are reacting to it and our behaviour is changing with it.

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Nonsense.

First of all, you shouldn't consume "popular science" articles and actually believe the conclusions. They're called "popular science" because it's more entertainment + editorial for the masses rather than accurate scientific reporting.

This specific one was very funny. It was a "popular science" article using another "popular science" article that was sourcing another "popular science". Finally, there was a link to the actual paper. And then I read it. And what do we see?

It was a study of IQ tests of military conscripts from 1962–1991. So, you know, all those frivolous conclusions you've haphazardly made? Baseless.

And so here comes the second advice: The world revolves regardless of that "story" you decide to plant into your head as "the truth". It is your responsibility to yourself to not fool yourself. The world doesn't care but you should. And it's never too late to start.

jazzc said:

Nonsense.

First of all, you shouldn't consume "popular science" articles and actually believe the conclusions. They're called "popular science" because it's more entertainment + editorial for the masses rather than accurate scientific reporting.

This specific one was very funny. It was a "popular science" article using another "popular science" article that was sourcing another "popular science". Finally, there was a link to the actual paper. And then I read it. And what do we see?

It was a study of IQ tests of military conscripts from 1962–1991. So, you know, all those frivolous conclusions you've haphazardly made? Baseless.

And so here comes the second advice: The world revolves regardless of that "story" you decide to plant into your head as "the truth". It is your responsibility to yourself to not fool yourself. The world doesn't care but you should. And it's never too late to start.

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So customers don't need more touchpoints now than before? We speak about volatile customers today for a reason. It's not my story or my truth, it's just the way business is. I don't fool myself I just see this daily in the advertising field.

Youtube ads especially, now people skip the ads faster than ever and you have 5 seconds to really keep their attention. In 2012 it was not like that.

It's just how marketing works, fewer attention span, changing the message for instant gratification.

Maybe the article was indeed wrong with the sources, I didn't go indepth like you and thanks for the clarification.

But yes people become lazier and don't want to do big efforts to buy a product or have their desires fulfilled, it's not based on studies it's just what you realise when you have an online business.

Why now for example dropshipping is not as reliable as before? Because people are accustomed to receive their shit the day after they order, nobody wants to wait 2 weeks for something anymore in 2022.

Same with slow website... I will not research and show you why a slow website is bad for you in 2022 due to the impatience of people compared to 2012 I am sure you get my point.

And if you tell me that I am wrong and you keep a site which makes 12 seconds to load because customers are not more impatient and accustom to having things fast today, I don't know what to tell you.

Willyfish said:

So customers don't need more touchpoints now than before? We speak about volatile customers today for a reason. It's not my story or my truth, it's just the way business is. I don't fool myself I just see this daily in the advertising field.

Youtube ads especially, now people skip the ads faster than ever and you have 5 seconds to really keep their attention. In 2012 it was not like that.

It's just how marketing works, fewer attention span, changing the message for instant gratification.

Maybe the article was indeed wrong with the sources, I didn't go indepth like you and thanks for the clarification.

But yes people become lazier and don't want to do big efforts to buy a product or have their desires fulfilled, it's not based on studies it's just what you realise when you have an online business.

Why now for example dropshipping is not as reliable as before? Because people are accustomed to receive their shit the day after they order, nobody wants to wait 2 weeks for something anymore in 2022.

Same with slow website... I will not research and show you why a slow website is bad for you in 2022 due to the impatience of people compared to 2012 I am sure you get my point.

And if you tell me that I am wrong and you keep a site which makes 12 seconds to load because customers are not more impatient and accustom to having things fast today, I don't know what to tell you.

Click to expand...

But a slower site or need to skip commercial, how can you correlate that to lower attention span? You could argue, people are more impatient for a site to load, because they are smart enough to know a trustworthy site would load fast.

Or that they skip those Youtube ads, because their are smart enough to know that it just a dazzle of marketing tricks to make you consume more - and the real content you came for is behind that ad?

SilverClouds said:

I don't understand, what problem are you having exactly? You say you have good seo and have run ads but you're getting only sporadic sales? If that's the case maybe the product/service/whatever it is isn't as great as you think it is? Not trying to insult you here but if there's demand, your quality is good and you did your seo and ads right you should be swimming in cash already. Or you are, but you want more growth? I don't get it.

Okay, I scrolled up and re-read your post. 'Lots of sales' - okay, so you have sales so what's your problem exactly? You should specify stuff like that in your job/contracting posts otherwise it's hard to tell what kind of involvement is required.

Honestly, I'll tell you something. I had so many business owners with serious business problems come to me and claim everything's fine and their company is great... Yet they came to me for help. So idk, people are bullshiting so much on these kind of things it gets hilarious at some point. 'Company is doing just fine! But... Help us.' You do realize how does this sound? Each time when company was bullshitting me like that I was pushing harder and harder for more information and it always turned out that they have more serious problems that they want to admit even to themselves.

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I didn't say we have sporadic sales. We have pretty consistent sales from the channels we're currently using. To put a number on it, in 2021, our average monthly sale was right about $30k. Having said that, to me it seems like we're reaching a plateau. We have grown 100% in year one, 50% in year two, 20% in year three and four. This year, thus far, we're growing by a mere 10% YoY compared to the same time frame last year. I blame it on the fact that all we do is the straight forward, traditional stuff like Google ads, Facebook ads, etc. We're starting some PR this year but I don't expect PR to have an immediate impact on numbers. It's probably more for business and personal branding purposes. I am hoping to eventually find someone who can help implement some of the less traditional marketing/growth methods. Some of the more viral campaigns. Heck, I don't even know if this is possible or if all that is more fluff than anything else. We have a great CMO on the team. Has an MBA in marketing and clearly is doing a great job with her traditional knowledge in marketing. What we're lacking on the team is someone who is creative and can come up with some of the more unconventional stuff.

I do get your last point about business owners bs'ing, thinking everything is alright. I'm a business consultant myself (besides having my own company), doing mostly executive coaching, helping with automation of more traditional businesses, business immigration to the U.S. and Canada, and helping small business owners retire and pass on/sell their business. Like yourself, I oftentimes hear "all is good" until you open up the hood and sh**'s just flying at you. I'd be the last person on earth claiming that all is well in my company. If that was the case, I wouldn't be looking for someone right now. Having said that, our revenue is stable, growing (albeit slower than I'd like it to), we're profitable and in my opinion in a decent market. The one thing we're currently missing are some creative ideas on how to accelerate the growth and someone who can pull up their sleeves and execute. Ten years ago, I'd be the guy who does that. Today, not so much - too many things on the fly, too little time

I sometimes look through the marketplace here on this forum and I'm truly confused. I think so many of the offers/services are great ideas, but I'm like, who has the time to manage all of this? Who tells me that these service aren't complete BS? Which ones make sense for my business? I need to work with someone who has the experience and knowledge to run these more unconventional campaigns efficiently.

Hope that answers your question.

Arditkallaba said:

But a slower site or need to skip commercial, how can you correlate that to lower attention span? You could argue, people are more impatient for a site to load, because they are smart enough to know a trustworthy site would load fast.

Or that they skip those Youtube ads, because their are smart enough to know that it just a dazzle of marketing tricks to make you consume more - and the real content you came for is behind that ad?

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A slow site is just boring, because we are bored and impatient, not about trust.

And we want to see our content immediatly not wait 5 seconds for an ad, it's too much time.we are impatient also.

Digital impatience is a thing and we need things fast.

We even have live chat on websites now because we know customers want answers now!

If you have a lead and you do phone close, now you must call them faster than 5 minutes after they became leads or they will go to the competition which is faster, because they have an attention span of a fish and will check other things online very and forget you fast.

https://www.superoffice.com/blog/response-times/
Again a study by superoffice ( I didn't watch all the details of the studies but I tend to trust them) shows that nearly customers expect a reply under 4 hours, which is pretty crazy when you think about it really...

Before I was happy to wait 2 days and receive an email, now it must be under 4 hours or I am pissed off and probably already went to the competitor.

No way we will reverse this trend anymore. People will want things faster and faster at a click of a button due to lack of patience and laziness.

Willyfish said:

A slow site is just boring, because we are bored and impatient, not about trust.

And we want to see our content immediatly not wait 5 seconds for an ad, it's too much time.we are impatient also.

Digital impatience is a thing and we need things fast.

We even have live chat on websites now because we know customers want answers now!

If you have a lead and you do phone close, now you must call them faster than 5 minutes after they became leads or they will go to the competition which is faster, because they have an attention span of a fish and will check other things online very and forget you fast.

https://www.superoffice.com/blog/response-times/
Again a study by superoffice ( I didn't watch all the details of the studies but I tend to trust them) shows that nearly customers expect a reply under 4 hours, which is pretty crazy when you think about it really...

Before I was happy to wait 2 days and receive an email, now it must be under 4 hours or I am pissed off and probably already went to the competitor.

No way we will reverse this trend anymore. People will want things faster and faster at a click of a button due to lack of patience and laziness.

Click to expand...

Im with you mate, but I just wanted to stress that most of these points could be the access to information and just being better at researching and choosing doing your due dilligence before choosing your product or service. Im saying I could make the case that people are just being smart by having their standards at higher. Especially in a world, where you can find two retailers with minimum difference - and the "service/support" is the tipping point.

Tho, I agree totally with that we cant reverse this trend tho

xReminisce said:

However, we have geniuses of each generation too, sadly, it's just overshadowed by degenerates or social media or famous people or idiots.
Since, media loves to broadcast things that will gives high ratings then old boring real news stuff.
Also, you need to understand that, while fishes population has dwindled down the past decade, humans went up instead.
View attachment 207552

World - Historical Population Data
Year	Population	Growth Rate
2022	7,953,952,567	1.00%
2021	7,874,965,825	1.03%
2020	7,794,798,739	1.05%
2019	7,713,468,100	1.08%
2018	7,631,091,040	1.10%
2017	7,547,858,925	1.12%
2016	7,464,022,049	1.14%
2015	7,379,797,139	1.16%
2014	7,295,290,765	1.17%
2013	7,210,581,976	1.19%
2012	7,125,828,059	1.20%
2011	7,041,194,301	1.21%
2010	6,956,823,603	1.22%
2009	6,872,767,093	1.23%
2008	6,789,088,686	1.24%
2007	6,705,946,610	1.24%
2006	6,623,517,833	1.25%
2005	6,541,907,027	1.25%
2004	6,461,159,389	1.25%
2003	6,381,185,114	1.26%
2002	6,301,773,188	1.27%
2001	6,222,626,606	1.29%
2000	6,143,493,823	1.31%

Source

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Holy cow, 30% pop. growth in a little over 20 years, that can't be right can it!?!?!?

Everyone wants to be the chief, nobody wants to be another indian in the tribe. Everyone thinks they special when in reality they are not.

Musicmarketing said:

Call me old school but when I was still an employee (sales and marketing), I had to work for my money, reach targets, etc. One of my first jobs where I really earned a ton of money, my base salary was a mere $18,000 per year in one of the most expensive cities in the nation. However, my commission and bonuses added up to a total compensation of over $120,000. Subsequent jobs I held were similar in regards to compensation. Small base, big upside and as long as I moved my a**, I never earned less than $100k per year. That was over ten years ago. Then, I started my own business, it became successful mostly via digital marketing done in-house. To grow even further, I think we need to expand our marketing efforts beyond what we can do in-house so I posted a job post for a growth hacker/marketing expert and my salary offering is similar, small base ($31,200 per year, which is minimum wage where I live), plus commission and bonuses for reaching pre-determined revenue and user numbers with an OTE of $100,000+. Long story short, nobody wants the job. Everyone is looking for that $100k salary upfront without proving their worth. Did I miss anything in the last ten years? Do employers no longer expect production and results from employees? I get it for admin staff and tech staff. I have a CTO, several project managers, admin staff, writers, etc. on payroll and their salary is fixed. But a sales/marketing job? It just seems wrong to me, not tying such a job to performance. This is the job post, which I'll probably take down shortly. Not worth it to me to gamble $100k on someone with big promises but no skin in the game when we can just continue to coast on what we're currently doing: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/grassroots-marketing-growth-hacker.1400753/

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I just read the job offer and these are my thoughts-
There's no explanation about the OTE. How much do I make a client? What's the product? Geography? Restrictions? LUV? Budget?
You're asking for someone with enough experience to run their own agency (looks like a requirement to be honest) but to a minimum wage with no clear objective for OTE.
Would you go work for a company offering minimum wage with a 'fuck knows' revenue share?

Improve the ad, improve the commission objectives.

It's totally up to you.

People are also getting more burned out, modern life has its own difficulties.

It has always been the same. People want to make money, just by being lazy and doing nothing, most people are like that and that's why, they never become rich. On the other hand, if you are from the small % and you are dedicated, it will happen.

The fact that you can get a lapdance in your VR at home says enough