When truth blurs, do people blur too?
Or, IRL is a Competitive Advantage
I’ve loved the phrase “you are what you read” since the first time I heard it. (You’ve Got Mail, Nora Ephron -> Greg Kinnear. Iconic.) But here’s my question.
If you are what you read… how do you know who you are, how do you become who you are – if you don’t know if what you read is real?
When truth, lies, and belief start to merge and diverge, through smoke screens and fake news, and AI deepfakes… what is the impact on our identities- individual and collective? When even truth is a fiction with a profit margin, how do we know which selves are real? One could argue The Bible as the original culprit of identity impact. Or the Koran, the Talmud, Fox News, or The New York Times. Any textbook. Any novel. Anything betwixt-and-between.
Navigating truth is a uniquely human activity. (Don’t @ me with “my dog or cat really does know when I’m lying” please.)
Therefore, by extension: understanding human experience—beyond the algorithm—requires methods that resist distortion... AND methods that understand, attribute, and meaningfully navigate distortion.
IMHO, classic ethnographer’s guiding principles apply now more than ever –
People lie to you. (AI does to, BTW.)
People lie to themselves.
The difference between what people say and do is where you’ll find theoretical magic.
You’ll never truly understand “the natives” until you shag a native.
Your subject isn’t you, not even a little bit, not a smidge.
AI/fakenews bonus: Your subjects are becoming less sure they are even themselves.
A tool for navigation has emerged with the advent of digital media for sure: abilities for tracking and mapping engagement, interaction, conversion, etc. can help to tell a story. However – while social media algorithms prioritize engagement over accuracy, feeding people what they want to believe rather than what’s true, we can also see where people go and what they do even if they tell us they don’t.
Here’s the Pitch
Aspects of market research, consumer insights, and brand strategy have long relied on secondary data. But if that data is distorted, what happens to decision-making? AI-powered sentiment analysis and trend forecasting are useful, but they risk reinforcing biases baked into digital ecosystems. The most strategic advantage today? Firsthand, in-person research—actually talking to people in real environments again and again –coupled with tools to help navigate the distortion in real-time.
In-person research is a competitive advantage. The role of ethnography in cutting through digital noise: seeing, listening, and understanding how people behave in real life, AND the role of data analysis in vice versa, are complementary and additive. They are 1+1 = 3.
Examples:
Understanding the world of farmers means walking their fields, sitting at their breakfast tables, hitting the coffee shop and hearing what they tell others – versus what you just saw them actually do in practice.
Urban consumers say they care about sustainability, but what do they actually buy? Observing their choices in-store and on-line helps tell the real story.
Surveying online and interviewing in-person the SAME population can lead to wildly divergent information.
We’re developing a hybrid approach: AI tools are great for data scanning, but on-the-ground research gives context AI can’t.
In a world where “reality” is increasingly up for debate, brands and strategists who invest in real-world observation will make better decisions. We don’t just need better data—we need better ways of understanding what’s actually happening. We need to navigate the truth and the distortion to find our way meaningfully through our multiple possible futures.
Bonus: A Very Short Primer on Identity Theory
(For when you’re trying to make sense of yourself… and the algorithm.)
So if we’re floating somewhere between our feeds, our feelings, and our field notes—how do we even begin to talk about the self? Turns out, some brilliant minds have been chewing on this question for a while. Below: a tiny but mighty primer on identity theory, just in case you’re wondering whether it’s you, or just the interface.
Erving Goffman — We perform our identities like actors on a stage. Social context is everything. The “self” is a role, constantly edited.
Food for Thought: When the algorithm is the audience, what kind of self are we performing—and for whom?
Pierre Bourdieu — Identity lives in habitus: the internalized rhythms of a culture. What feels natural is learned.
Food for Thought: Our habitus is shaped by the stories we live among—and digital stories are loud, fast, and sticky.
Michel Foucault — You don’t just express your identity; you’re shaped into a subject by the systems around you. Power writes the script.
Food for Thought: What we read doesn’t just inform us—it formats us.
Stuart Hall — Identity is not fixed—it’s always becoming. Formed in dialogue with culture, difference, and time.
Food for Thought: If identity is a story we tell with others, what happens when the storytellers are bots?
Judith Butler — Identity is something you do, not something you are. Repetition = recognition.
Food for Thought: In digital life, we don’t just perform identity—we optimize it.