Demographics

A demographic is any group of like minded individuals. Whether they are a subculture of their own, or a weekly ladies' book club, a demographic is a collection of individuals that identify themselves by standards, such as income, fashion, location, or standard of living.

The three readings are all about people, how to categorize them, and then how to approach them (usually for reasons of marketing). The overlap between the three readings is entertaining because it talks all about how interconnected people are in different ways than before, and how impossible it is to standardize people. People continue to affect each other, effect the ways they interact with each other and finally, how they pursue their goals.

I find it intriguing that there is such a variety of opinions of all of these subjects. Not that I expected it to be cut and dry, but the fact that the organizations that it make it their business to try and categorize people fail to work together, and more importantly, cannot complete their job in an manner of finality. I realize that that is simply an effect of dealing with people, who on their own are often chaotic and unpredictable. I really enjoyed the discussion of video vs. book. vs. radio/podcast. It was a debate often held in the Computer Animation department and it is entertaining and insightful to listen to the opinions of different people over the same movies and books. The vastness of opinion is delightful and somewhat frightening. The ability to write a book, with a set idea in mind, and then find an entire portion of your fan base not only miss that idea, but come up with a completely tangential one is both infuriating and exciting. The idea that we as designers will be asked to design to try and appeal to a single demographic is a challenge that seems fun to meet, albeit difficult.