Response to Seth Godin's blog today

My comments follow Seth's: I wholly disagree!

On Aug 11, 2010, at 3:46 AM, Seth Godin wrote:

When technology and tradition diverge

What be the effect on voting patterns if we used digital technology to announce the current vote tally every hour (or every hundred votes).

People would see the direction an election was going and be more likely to be pulled in. Voter attention and ultimately voter involvement would go up, and fraud would be more difficult.

So why don't we do it?

When the secret ballot was introduced, it just wasn't possible to count the votes in less than a few days. So a tradition was established, driven by the technology, not because it was the best way. Now, of course, the technology doesn't need that tradition any longer, but it's still here.

One by one, traditions that supported technology are falling as the technology changes. The simple thank you note, for example, is a long tradition based on the technology of couriers and then the postal service. Of course it arrives three days later, because that's how long it takes. At first, the email thank you note seems too impersonal, too easy, too digital. Then, we begin to appreciate the speed and it become ubiquitous and then expected.

There are huge opportunities for marketers seeking to upend traditions that have outlived their usefulness. Just don't expect it to happen overnight.


My comment to Seth's blog- As an ardent follower of your daily blogs on this one, 'When technology and tradition diverge', I have to disagree. The television networks as our traditional source of election results, purposely and lawfully do not reveal actual election results until the ballots have been cast and counted. Granted they bide by polls based on third party tabulations, but the individual vote and the information needed to insure a mostly unbiased electoral vote remains an integral part of our democratic system. As to the thank you note I wholly disagree. If someone has taken the time to share an experience with me professionally or personal by way of any gift, be it a meal or real token,or even time, certainly proper decorum is shown by a 'quick' email followed by a traditional snail-mail (next day?) personal and hand written, note. We should not write less notes because the technology exists but rather stand out as one who does care and takes the time to recognize a shared experience. Technology will never replace tradition except as a generation perceives it as a loss. The loss is then theirs.