Business Assessment

 

Online communication is definitely transforming the private sector, from marketing, distribution and customer service to public relations. Companies have been forced to expand digital outreach to maintain their market shares. As an example lets look at the successful fast food chain Wendy’s and how they have adapted over time.

 

  

Wendy’s corporate website (https://www.wendys.com/home) leads to a well-designed homepage with various links to different sections ranging from menu items, to company culture, to job opportunities. It’s clear that this website is meant to be a hub for most of the initial interactions people may have with the company. Other links at the top of the page (for ordering food for delivery or pickup) are distinct and have their own color coordination to separate them.  The body of the homepage is filled with a variety of links including coupon codes, ongoing promotions, nutrition information and a public statement (issued on a company blog) in support of the black community. The very bottom of the page contains contact information and links to various social media platforms(Instagram, Facebook and Twitter). Overall, the page is laid out in such a way as to be accessible to as many people as possible. Emphasis is placed not only on their customer service, but also on the company culture. The layout is friendly, colorful and accessible.

Taking a closer look at their social media, Wendy’s posts regularly several times a week on each platform. The vast majority of the posts are humorous. For example, the most recent post on Facebook, was “Change my name to meat” a play on facebook themselves changing the name of their corporate holdings to Meta. A glance through the histories of twitter and Instagram tells a similar story. There are also several posts of sweepstakes and announcements on each platform. Honestly, the community engagement is very spot on. Whoever manages these social media accounts has an excellent idea of how to make connections online.

I think Wendy’s has done a good job adapting their online persona to deal with market conditions. Their main website does an excellent job directing the viewer to whatever they are seeking. They also use this space to make statements that reflect strongly on their company culture (such as the Black Lives Matter support). On social media, Wendy’s understands that the type of content people are looking for is different than traditional advertising. Instead, they use humor and memes, in tandem with more traditional marketing (like sweepstakes). On these platforms the goal is to engage with consumers, and I think they are successful in that respect. My only critique is the frequency of posts. With a couple more posts a week, they could have even more community engagement.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/wendys-international/

https://www.instagram.com/wendys/

https://twitter.com/Wendys

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

There is an ongoing debate in academia(when isn't there) between the validity of  the theory of digital natives and digital immigrants. This theory was first coined in 2001 by Marc Prensky, who effectively argued that there is a drift between the information processing of current generations versus older generations that parallels the mass-adoption of technology. In short, older generations (who adopted technology as it was created) have a disadvantage in their use compared to younger generations which were born using it. Prensky called the first group Digital Immigrants while calling the second Digital Natives. Prensky argues that this "disadvantage" manifests particularly strongly in the educational sectors, where digital immigrants are using tried and true teaching methodologies that predate todays technological advancements. Their students (mostly Digital Natives), however, are adjusted to a technologically saturated world. This saturation has led to significant differences in the structure of learning between these two groups.

Prensky effectively argues that the disconnect is a product of divergent a neurological evolution. These changes may manifest as a lack of interest or attention for topics presented in a way more familiar to Digital Immigrant.  For example, Digital Natives have lifetime access to(and therefore have developed passive skills to interpret) massive pools of information and databases. Where once the issue was obtaining enough sources for work (and maybe memorizing the Dewey decimal system), the more prominent issue is obtaining quality sources. Lessons based on learning how a library sorts information are superfluous to a generation that googles information. The proliferation of online games in the information era also serves to reinforce learning and behavioral changes. Video game design has long focused on incorporating learning the game into the gameplay itself. Skill and understanding in games is an emergent property, it doesn't come from reading the manual. Prensky likewise, argues that a similar approach in education could help maintain student attention and information retention. In short, he argues that the inability of teaching methods to adapt to a new generational psychological paradigm is a larger problem than the capacity of the students to learn themselves.

However, like all good theories, there are valid counter arguments. Paul Kirschner argues that being a digital native does not make one digitally literate. To put this in a simpler way, inheriting an asset does not make you proficient in its use. This is an important distinction. Simply having a lifetime access to a tool, does not make you equipped to recreate the tool, trained to use the tool, or able to adapt the tool for additional uses. For example, access to a calculator does not make you a more literate user of math, able to reproduce the calculations or teach you how to build a calculator. Kirschner’s point is that the assumption that digital saturation leads to digital literacy is unfounded. Competency is not a natural biproduct of purely environmental conditions. 

 

Kirschner, P. A., & De Bruyckere, P. (2017). The myths of the digital native and the Multitasker. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 135–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.001

Prensky, M. (2001, October). Digital Natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.

 

 

Knapp's Relationship Model

 

Friendships, romantic partners, parental figures, bosses, coworkers and business partners. What do they have in common? Well, you’ll probably experience most of the elements of Knapp’s relationship model in dealing with each one. Knapp had a some pretty interesting ideas on the development of relationships and (unfortunately) on their decline. Mostly that the second law of thermodynamics applies to relationships (if you don’t get the joke it’s ok it’s not funny). To put it another way, all things naturally have an end. Knapp conveys the trajectory with this model.

Looking at this, I have no doubt that readers will have momentary flashbacks to previous relationships. Childhood friends, romantic partners, and many more all have very similar starts and often very similar ends. In the internet age this is even more self-evident. A friend of mine actually rapidly shifted through this model multiple times within a matter of weeks. As for me personally, I’m a happily married man. Amanda and I have been together for six years, and we have been in the bonding phase for the vast majority of that time.  It’s a sobering realization that every relationship you have could naturally progress to the terminating point. My wife would not be happy, and neither would I. Fortunately, things aren’t that simple. The Knapp model above is missing an important component, social investment.

There we go, much better.  

Relational maintenance is not a magical solution. Integrating, Bonding are activities that require dedication, time and effort. It’s also important to note that differentiation and circumscribing are not purely points of no return. Relational maintenance can act as a balancing tool during these two steps. This is pretty good news for my marriage, as we always make sure to spend time bonding and growing together. We aren’t perfect individuals, but we actively participate in our relationship and support when possible. Far from being a cautionary tale, Knapp’s model gives me renewed confidence that positive relationships can be maintained and prosper. That said, there is an important insight to be had here. Long term relationships require constant energy and time investment. This also means that only a limited number can be maintained at once. Quality over quantity.