"AI Told Me So" Is A Soulless Song!
- Writer for DDI on Medium
- Jul 31
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 29
Making friends in the 80s and 90s is truly a lost art form!
Do you remember how uncomplicated making friends in school or at the playground was if you liked someone or found them interesting and wanted to be their friend?
I always joke about how I met one of my best friends. She walked over to me on our first day of school and said
“I like you, you’re going to be my best friend from today.”
What about the adrenaline rush of communicating before technology? How you’d pass notes to speak with a friend in class while the teacher was standing right there!
It might seem primitive to pay attention to questions or concerns your ideal client has when you work with them to create content. Sneaking a message to someone with similar values to you while the gatekeepers stand guard might feel too risky. But in an age where no one puts in the effort anymore, you can’t deny there’s something special about knowing someone broke 'the law of complicated SEO tips' to connect with you.
THEY CALL IT “90s LOGIC”
…I say, the use of technology has erased their memory.
Many people today crave connection minus technology—they miss the messy magic of real-world friendships.
This is what bonding looked like before SEO and AI. You learned how to read each other's body language and navigate tricky disagreements and awkward silences. You experienced things together that deepened the friendship, and you were all joined together by space and time:
I have 6 brothers, all close in age, and on Saturdays, if you wanted to know where everyone was, all you had to do was follow where the bikes were or the boxcarts were parked!
I remember being at a friend's home in her room a lot. Me with 3 or 4 other girls, all taking turns combing our hair in front of the mirror.
Now, a deep slumber of prompting has fallen upon the small business world. No one wants to put in the effort anymore to build a real connection. They're resorting to mirroring instead (“I don’t have the time, or the team.” I’m like you, "I'm a 1-man show“, "I’m a creative”) because taking the time to truly understand what someone else is going through is too much work in the autopilot age.
Is connection and communication hard for you?
"Making friends in school wasn't easy for me. It isn't easy to do as an adult now. It is easier to connect through technology because it's less messy:
You don't need to care about how your personalities might clash or make the effort to communicate. I believe that is the case for many people—nobody has the energy to fight up with all that."
MANY THINGS CAN BE A BASIS FOR CONNECTION. THE GOAL IS CHOOSING THE RIGHT FOUNDATION TO BUILD ON, BUT THE KEY TO COMMUNICATING IS EMPATHY.
What does this have to do with your business!?
Someone can trust that you can do X job, but does that specific person feel understood?
That's the part big businesses in Trinidad and Tobago seldom want to spend time perfecting. Hence why their marketing comes across as impersonal and cold. The edge here is that they've got the budget to push ads, invest in SEO, to stay top of mind, or "throw it in ChatGPT," as they say. The irony of "being real," I guess.
Do you even want to play that game if you had the money and personality?
One principle of mine is understanding that everything I do, I do it unto God first. But even if you're not a Christian, as a lil-guy, you get to use your brain here:
What have you specifically experienced that helps a specific kind of person feel heard?
For example, despite 99% of my clients being Christians, being Christian isn't easy; you're parroted, ridiculed for beliefs like hating liars, for example, and persecuted for your convictions. Those things are real financial threats when you're just starting a business, which is why only some of us will die for the things God placed in our hearts. But here's the thing about empathy. It doesn't need to be non-critical or soft to be considered empathy. You can appreciate what got someone in a certain situation without compromising your values.
So, if you feel like this autopilot age is groping in the dark for meaningful connection, you're not alone, and you don’t have to subject yourself to complicated content creation tips that render you making assumptions about people you've never worked with.
Help your tribe relive what it was like to make friends absent technology by:
Walking up to someone you like
Asking questions
Curating a space where your clients feel their values are represented
Having a point of view
I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB **Schedule a call with me if you need help with your visual branding. Let's see if you're a good fit! **Figure out what you're trying to say with The One-Page Workbook™ **Sign up to receive these weekly articles in your inbox if you’re not quite ready to work with me yet.
