I sat in on Robert Scoble's presentation during the Internet Strategy Forum about a month ago here in Portland. It was interesting to hear his battle with Facebook, and the amount of time it took for him to ultimately setup a profile, even though all of his buddies were recommending it. Its a result of what I call "Social Saturation," (having accounts with facebook, linkedin, flickr, blogger, myspace, pandora, twitter, etc., and being hesitant to setup yet another).

With that said, I came up with a new term (kind of) today:

Indie Fatigue (n.): Energy drain caused by trying to stay one step ahead of Corporate America and the general population, so you (feel that you) are not a sell out.

e.g.
I liked Moby until he was on all those commercials
Craigslist was cool, until my mom started using it (not sure if anyone has really said this)
I had a facebook account, until there were threats that Microsoft might take over.
Cuba was a great place to visit, until Castro died and they opened it back up to tourism (NOTE: this has not yet happened)

I agree that this concept needs some refining, and see three elements to it:

1. Trying to beat corporate america and big media (an independent...?)
   
2. Trying to do things that the general public is not. (a rebel)
   
3. Trying to discover the "next best thing." (a trend setter)

me: What kind of music do you like?
some dude: I like Indie music.
me: Why would you like this song over another, simply because the other is related w/ label?

I almost called it Trend Fatigue.... Maybe I should call it Hipster Fatigue

My point- At some level, many consumers will tire of chasing the hip, and settle. Posted by: Andy at 11:50 AM  |  Permalink