“We all lead increasingly busy lives” – The Dangers of Self-Projection

“We all lead increasingly busy lives”. In 12 years of working in a media agency, I’ve heard this mantra repeated regularly, by industry colleagues from all disciplines. Despite the frequent repetition, I don’t recall ever seeing any substantiation (and after 12 years, it seems fair to ask how much longer we’ll continue to become busier for!).

Perhaps it’s just obvious and self-evident. But “We all lead increasingly busy lives” is often more than a throwaway comment. Usually, it’s the reason why we need to change the way advertisers connect with people. It’s frequently used as the basis for why the ‘old’ way of thinking about advertising – building reach and frequency – needs to be replaced with a focus on engagement, involvement, cut through, native content and the like. If we’re increasingly busy, the logic goes, we’ve got less time to pay attention to advertising, so brands need to do more to grab our attention and stick in our minds. “We all lead increasingly busy lives” is a frequent starting point for an idea, planning decision or strategy, so it’s worth a little bit of examination before we accept it as a descriptor of modern life.

As a starting point, it’s not the case that we’re working longer hours. Since 1970, the average annual working hours of an employed UK adult has fallen by 13%, or five hours a week (according to OECD figures). Since the turn of the millennium, we’re half an hour better off on average.

If we’re not working more, we must be busy elsewhere. But our media consumption habits suggest not. In the past 10 years, the amount of TV we watch has fallen by just three minutes to 3 hours 36 minutes. per day. This is in addition to the 12 minutes we spend each day on YouTube, and the incremental time viewing through tablets, phones and consoles. Online shopping means we can spend less time visiting shops, banks and supermarkets. Seven million of us find time for a Netflix subscription.

In short, we’re working less and finding more time for leisure activities. We have more control over how we spend our time than previously.

There’s a bigger point here though –given the statistics above, why do we seem to accept and recognise the truth of “WALIBL” without question? Is it really so clear cut as to just be obvious? In my view, this is an example of a greater peril in our generalisation of audiences.

In most cases where I’ve heard “WALIBL”, most people in the room have been between the ages of 20 and 50. For these people (myself included), we can definitely agree that our lives have got busier (and, 12 years on, continue to do so!). Gone are the carefree days of studenthood, living with parents and part time jobs. The unrelenting passing of time has indeed brought – for us - longer working hours, additional responsibilities and new demands on our attention and time.

Reflecting on ourselves, our friends, peers and colleagues strongly reinforces the idea that our lives are increasingly busy. But it goes without saying this there are other sections of society that have had a different experience in the last 10-20 years. My parents’ generation, for example, are significantly less busy than they were 10-20 years ago, with the burden of jobs and dependent children now lifted. Today’s teenagers are no busier than we were at their age, in the same way that we (arguably) have no more demands on our time than previous generations at our age.

Without making this a hindsight-imbued Brexit reflective, the same self-reflection bias was evident in the shocked reaction to the EU referendum result. As an industry based on consumer insight, how could we be so convinced of an ‘in’ result, given more than half the country preferred the alternative? Again, the answer comes from surveying the opinions, media habits and Facebook feeds of our colleagues, all of which show a hugely distorted sample of the country. The core Brexit voters – older people, those outside the big cities, people on low wages more directly affected by immigration – are less familiar and visible to the majority of us in the more youthful, urban advertising industry.

All of this shows the importance (and difficulty) of recognising the difference that exists beyond our everyday experience and circle of influence. Whether understanding audiences, predicting trends or justifying strategy, we must be sure that our assertions are based on properly considered observations and not just our specific view of the world. “We all lead increasingly busy lives” may be true, but “We all lead increasingly busy lives” is not.