How to Tell Stories in an A.D.D. World

In this talk at the 99U Conference in 2014, best-selling author and VaynerMedia founder Gary Vaynerchuk asks how creatives can capture attention and make their voices heard in a world of Vine, Snapchat and Twitter. He describes our current “A.D.D. culture,” in which we binge-watch entire television seasons in one sitting and prefer texting to phone calls.

“We’ve gotten to a point where everything is on our time,” says Vaynerchuk, “So why is everyone storytelling like it’s 2007 in a 2014 world?” The best digital storytellers, he argues, use social media to hook audiences in for the deeper stuff. We should give, give again and give some more before ever asking anything of our community, and “we have to start respecting the nuances of every platform.”

The give-first approach echoes the reciprocation principle in persuasive design. Note that the talk contains adult language.