attention industry

Possibly the dumbest thing I will read today.

“As part of an experiment for my forthcoming book Brandwashed, I lined up 20 babies between the ages of 14 and 20 months. I then handed each one a BlackBerry. No sooner had their soft chubby fists reached out to take the phone from me than they touched the screen expecting it to light up. When nothing happened, a few stuck it in their mouths whilst others moved on to something more interesting.

These babies, all under two years old, have already been converted to the Apple brand.”

-What Apple Babies Reveal About Our Tech Routines, Martin Lindstrom

What baffles me about this is: had the writer never seen a baby that wasn’t exposed to Apple products? Or a pre-iPhone baby?

Children (and, in fact, everyone) react to stimuli. When a baby touches an iPhone screen, or any screen, it’s because IT MIGHT DO SOMETHING, and touching is a form of interaction.

Children also squeeze toys, and get excited when they make a noise.

If you wanted to argue that the way a child reacts to iOS devices indicates that people crave responsiveness on an intrinsic level, that might make sense.  Saying children under 2 have been converted to the Apple brand because a non-responsive phone ends up abandoned is just an embarrassing, illogical leap.