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In agreement to author Mark Tovey, “hypertrail” (2008, xxxii) is the moment in which there is too much dialogue between brand and consumer, user and technology, meaning that people leave a historical and digital trail behind when sharing or searching data in the Internet. “Hypertrail” is also the focus of our research presented in this chapter and throughout the whole book, as well. We are facing a new era of networking and smart devices where brands we engage to dialogue with are the ones that connect and keep in touch with us ― they track us and anticipate every move of ours, meaning this we cannot flee from the huge trail we leave behind on the networks, websites and apps. As Tovey speaks about, we rely on the hypertrail, we track the brands and in return, they track us. Besides, brands are aware that we use our smartphones as complete devices for all facts in our lives and that nowadays we are all synchronized. This day and age is what Lipovetsky & Serroy call “hypermodernity” (2013, 13). Furthermore, this is the modernity in which digital media is being used to push us further in technology, science, information and consumerism. Never before has the system known so much about ourselves. In addition, there is more up to it. Without previous instance, have we confessed so much detail about our lives and shopping habits as we do online by giving up our privacy in order to use digital systems. What defines the online media is that is often “hypertextual or hypermediated” (Miller, 2011, 25), meaning that the digital media are context-aware of us and they rely on crossing information about us, thus anticipating every move of ours. Some authors, such as Turkle, prefer to label this media as “narcissistic devices” because we use them as mirrors of our own personality. We shop online, too. Therefore, we are “in” without noticing we do many different things in a “virtual” space without thinking very much as we used to in the past. Events, concepts, facts and actions just happen all the time and we go with the flow. We use special smartphones as extensions of who we are, and of how we think and behave. Whenever we take selfies, we are objectified in representations (Leurs, 2015, 192). This occurs because we do not care about the kind of trail we leave behind ― algorithms digest all our photos and web searches. We came to build a hypertrail online independently we are or not aware of that.
Some authors believe that what is at stake is “these micro-politics of association” (Leurs, 2015, 200), since what counts now is to be connected, wherever and whenever we wish, multiplying the links between us: social media, brands, network and cloud, which shape us. This is also a time to notice a rather different kind of sociality. In spite of this, to be more connected to other people does not necessarily mean we are more truly connected as most of the times it is just one more connection. Nevertheless, the digital system, in which we leave behind our massive hypertrail, keeps favoring"hypersociality" (Ito apud Karaganis, 2007, 96) all the time. It is not about being really social to people, but about having the ability to engage them at any given time. In 1996, Engelbart proposed the concept of "groupware" (apud Tovey, 2008, 331). Once social media are technology-based systems, and there are people in the mix, it makes sense to speak of groupware, but now there is more than groups of people online ― there are whole cities, societies and countries. Hypersociality is also a phenomenon that emphasizes people’s lack of care about the kind of trail they leave behind, in other words, what is relevant for many people is to show up and live online. To add to this fact the shopping spree takes place as we learn from YouTubers and Influencers because we feel that somebody or something is leading us, is pointing directions to us online but we do not know exactly who is doing that, and finally, in the deep end there are the brands directing people’s lives. The fact there is such an "information continuum" that comes from way back before social media (but that now is boosted) is what keeps us all checked in place. Everybody is watching each other’s performance. This is a blend between consumer culture and surveillance culture. The hypertrail is a data-driven evidence that someone built, some kind of an architecture to receive, examine and profile our data. In Primo’s regard, "The younger generations use the platforms the same way you do: strategically. Their goal is to get their message out and stay relevant" (2014, para.7). Yet, the issue is that if everybody uses media in a strategic manner, then this is but a society of strategic media. Moreover, this is the reason why the hypertrail is so relevant for the brands that remain in charge. Actually, hypersociality is the core of change here ― we are measured by the people who are measured by us. Currently, we are not a product of our environment, it is precisely the opposite, it is our environment that is our product. In return, something else happens; we became this saturated Self, the type of person that produces too much hypertrail online. We rely on connection and consumerism and we are all focused on the politics of performance, something similar to a role-play online now, and brands are aware of these behaviors and help us shopping online for an identity. Brands are the new system we are into; they have become a conversation, an extension, a bridge we cross. Once, Gibson said, “The Walkman changed the way we understand cities” (2012, 13). So did the smartphone, the networks, and the social media, too. Yet, music is relevant because it matches the flows of this liquid society. Music became the soundtrack of our consumeristic lives the same way people want to live the dream. Moreover, music is everywhere. “This inevitable shift toward fluidity is now transforming almost every other aspect of society” (Kelly, 2016, LOC 973-5810). We cannot imagine how music, pop music mostly, is shaping society and helping this hypersociality to emerge with saturation. Whenever we put our headphones and we get to be isolated in our desks, we resemble pilots in their fighter jet cockpits (Turkle, 2015, 249). Little by little, we become isolated, but once we tune into our apps, we promote hypersociality. Brands are the doors we open, worlds we connect to as they favor the identities we shop for. In addition, there is always music as a background. As said before, people in front of their desks are like cockpit pilots, while people on the streets adore the “pleasures of musically encapsulated fast-forward urban motion” (Gibson, 2012, 14). Whether on the street or indoors we connect, we listen, we watch, we stream, we search, and we leave a hypertrail behind us, something similar to our digital footprint. The philosopher Gilles Deleuze once said that unlike the static war machine, “(…) nomads are motionless, and the nomadic adventure begins when they seek to stay in the same place by escaping the codes“ (2004, 260). As a mobile crowd, we are going along exactly like this, both indoors and outdoors ― we are the nomads escaping from the codes. Nevertheless, since we are leaving a hypertrail behind, are we truly escaping? Is there an escape route at all? In The Three Ecologies, Guattari argues that “Individuals are ‘captured’ by their environment, by ideas, tastes, models, ways of being, images that are constantly injected into them, and even by the refrains that go round and round in their heads” (Pindar & Sutton apud Guattari, 2000, Introduction, 8). This still holds true, especially in the current hypermodern, hypersocial and hyperconnected society we live in. We love searching for things and purchasing items that highlight our style. “Discoverability” is the item to keep in mind (Kelly, 2016, LOC 1080-5810), because we actually find things that made our journey into the digital media space. Music is really one of the products we consume and that benefits from the hyperdistribution. “Success no longer derives from mastering distribution. Distribution is nearly automatic; it is all streams. The Great Copy Machine in the Sky takes care of that” (Kelly, 2016, LOC 1080-5810). The main reason why music and films are so much hyperdistributed in streams around the world is because they respectively unleash the soundtracks and the visualtracks for the lifestyles we are supposed to consume. Brands and networks behind this masterplan uphold the role-playing that is at stake here. Out consumeristic behavior needs items to assemble the image we need for the role-play. We are what we buy, as well as what we look like. Bauman used to say that “The consumerist vocation ultimately rests on individual performances" (2011, 55). Moreover, such performances are precisely what we are leaving behind on the hypertrail. Brands and media are the architects of this space where the hypertrail is recorded forever and this recent reality transformed users into a new type of person, a new kind of consumers. These new consumers, these new citizens are the homo cypiens who have moved into the 21st century. They will reshape the world.
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Now, the future is branded. There is no “the” future or “a” future. There are only “futures”. Each brand follows, develops, promotes and sells its own vision of the time concept of “future”. Author Kelly says that “we will be endless newbies in the future simply trying to keep up” (2016, LOC 180-5810). As a matter of fact, it may even be true. But while we try to thrive and to keep up, we are actually doing something. We are “becoming”, and becoming what? We are becoming what the brands we follow have designed for ourselves. In Bauman’s perspective “Anticipating future trends based on past events becomes more and more riskier and, oftenly mistakingly (…). Liquid life is flow of restarts" (2007, 8). Thus, this fluidity is becoming mandatory. However, we have to keep in mind that even if the past is not anymore what sells the most when compared to the future, we have to say that everything we do online, and mostly on social media, is becoming past. The past is actually useful. It is not outdated. On the contrary, the old is the new “new”. One thing is certain, to be savvy will be one of the most important attributes for near future. We need survivors for this predatory environment in which future narratives are controlled by corporate brands. We need new heroes, people with new abilities. In Pink’s regard:
“The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind—creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people—artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers—will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys” (2005, 1).
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