Exposed to the Core

Podcasts are a fantastic way to listen to the 'radio' programs which cover only the things in which you are interested. Don't want to hear a program about the development of commerce in the North of England but do want to hear a program about your mobile phone and how to use it? No problem. Switch off the radio and pop on over to iTunes and subscribe to a free podcast.

Great. That's what I do.

But, I've found that receiving regular opinions from the core of an interest group exposes me to a lifestyle that is (not deliberately) portrayed as 'the way'. I'm fascinated by how the people I listen to refer to a $50 application as 'must have' and a $500 piece of hardware as 'essential' thus implying that if you want to be considered a 'serious user' or even a 'proper' user, then you have to get these.

Not only can a huge number of people not afford even one 'essential' $20 application, even more can't justify getting a new iPod when they already have one, albeit with 16GB less storage. Do you need to get a new Smartphone every six months in order to be considered an enthusiast?

As I said, I'm convinced that there's no intention to exclude anybody from the 'gang' in any of the plethora of podcasts that I enjoy, but it is interesting to see the social effects of having a 'community leader' (podcaster) defining the standard and establishing the 'best' stuff to buy. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't just buy the latest XBox game (I'd need an XBox first) if I didn't have the money. Would that make me less of a man?

This is the power of advertising and this is the single most thing that advertising needs in order to work; you are less important if you don't have our product. The challenge is for the common people to have enough self confidence and self awareness to be able to say 'that's nice but no, I don't need that'.