The cult of product

Just the other day I was an attendee at the Digital Hollywood Conference, where experts and pundits from the fields of entertainment and technology get together to discuss the state of the industry and where it's headed.

I remember being in one seminar where the moderator asked the audience, "Who has what kind of Smartphone?" Then he proceeded to name them off asking for a show of hands.

"iPhones?" Lots of hands were raised.

"Blackberrys?" Some more hands were raised.

"Nokias?" A few were raised.

"Palms?" One hand was raised and there was somewhat of silent snicker.

As this process unfolded, I couldn't help but notice the pride that surfaced amongst my fellow attendees... All of a sudden this room of barely-there strangers not talking to each other but all sharing the same experience was connected and in something of a silent competition. Each, when it came time, exuberantly raised their hand high as if to say, "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!"

One gentleman actually raised his hand, with what I assumed to be the latest Blackberry in it, as if showing it to the rest of the room made some kind of statement about who he was.

And that brings me to the point. I realized there was something perversely tribal going on in this windowless, air conditioned room with fluorescent lighting.

Products give people some sense of belonging and identity that is (sadly) missing in the absence of meaningful community living. So something has to fill the void.

Instead of rallying around our tribe and gaining connection from our fellow members, we rally around our favorite products and connect with our fellow "users."

Then the moderator asked those with iPads (one person in the audience actually came to the seminar with 4 in tow) to explain something cool they realized when using it. The pontification and eloquence that ensued was really something to behold, though I did listen with a quite interested ear.

Inwardly I asked the question, "If people didn't have to make money for a living, would anybody care about any of this? Would these same people be doing what they're doing now?" This grump of mine was particularly targeted to the AT&T, Nokia, and Google executives on the panel who seemed so filled to the brim with information not worthy of us.

Truthfully, it was difficult to see so many of my brothers and sisters starry eyed and ga ga over the latest gadgets and even more difficult to see that the future is headed in the direction of more and more of less and less.

There was also a "Cyber Dating Expert" I sat next to who multitasked the entire time, tabbing between Facebook, Tweetdeck, Microsoft Word, and Mail at warp speed.

It really is up to us to demonstrate that our humanity is not lost, when there are such strong indications that it is.