We are entering the embodiment age; I feel, therefore I think.

observation — attributed to Marc Friedland

Friedland's frame for the current era inverts Descartes. The model is no longer I think, therefore I am. It is I feel, therefore I think. Decisions about voting, products, social-media connections, brand affinity all run on how someone feels first. The information age has given way to what he calls the embodiment age. The implication for communicators is operational. Communications that aim at the head and then hope to reach the heart move slower than communications that aim at the heart and let the head follow. Transformation and embodiment are linked; you cannot have one without the other. Designs that ignore embodiment ignore the actual decision-making mechanism.

For brand strategists, communicators, and event designers thinking about how decisions actually get made. The observation is most useful as a frame against information-first communication strategies.

embodiment, post-information-age, feeling, descartes-inversion