I am down to the last few minutes here of day one of a second 30 Day Blog Challenge. This time it shouldn’t be as difficult to accomplish one post a day for 30 days since I have no travel plans this month. So here we go…

This past weekend I helped my brother clean out his garage that had been filled with old toys that my parents brought out to us from Wyoming. Now, ironically my garage is filled with these toys, but I had a chance tonight to start going through them and cleaning them up to donate or sell. While I was unloading some of the boxes, besides being nostalgic, the thought came to me about how companies create flash in the pan buzz about toys simply for the holiday season. I wonder how many children beg for toys during the holiday season that only months before they had never heard of? I’ll be honest I know I did that as a kid and I am sure my parents were not too pleased that I lost interest only weeks after the holidays were over.

I feel this is exactly how the Internet has come to operate on a constant level, not just for holidays or special events. We are all glued to email, Blackberry, Iphones, laptops and desktops, waiting for the next buzz to come our way. It could be an email from your boss or the top story to break on Yahoo. It could be any number of internet guilty pleasures we have all come to embrace. Yet just like the toy that we begged our parents for each Christmas, we lose interest after a short time and are off to see what is new on YouTube.

The thing is, very few people recognize that this is how they are living their lives. Advertising people especially need to make sure they take a step back from the BUZZ in order to keep a window open so that they might be able to grab some of their customer’s very short interest span. (I would use attention span, but I don’t think any of us really pay attention) I think about how much time I spend, after I hear about a new innovation or marketing tool, waiting to see the practical use for it. Rather, I should be looking at what need it fulfills and why there is even a need in the first place.

Think about it, what need did the Hampster Dance really fulfill for anyone ? All these things did was kill thousands of hours of time and unimaginable amounts of brain cells. But wait… think about all the traffic that that webmaster got simple because of a flash in the pan?