Sascha Lobo: Overdose of world events and complexity
Sascha Lobo is the one with the haircut. But rather, Sascha Lobo is an expert on digitalization, which has been radically and rapidly changing our world for years.
The author and strategy consultant specializing in the Internet and brand communication, does not belong to the Internet generation. When he was born in 1975, there was neither the Internet nor mobile communications nor smartphones or social media. Perhaps all the more reason for the “business punk” Lobo to notice how fast and complex the world has become since his childhood. No matter where you look, changes that used to take years are now happening at lightning speed. That’s something humanity has to keep up with.
The expert on Internet developments, network economics, digitization and future trends has written various books, some together with co-authors, the majority of which deal with our world in the age of digitization: in 2006, the book “Wir nennen es Arbeit” (We call it work) was published, in 2012 “Internet — Fluch oder Segen” (Internet — curse or blessing) and most recently in 2019 “Realitätsschock. Ten Lessons from the Present.”
Sascha Lobo – Expert in Strategy & Brand Communication
Sascha Lobo tells in his lectures that since around the years 2014 or 2015 he “has had this feeling that the world seems out of joint, we suffer reality shocks.” Although there have always been problems, “today there are only a few big problems that don’t have a global or digital background and therefore seem much more comprehensive.”
In an interview with the Tagesspiegel about his latest book, he was once asked a tad provocatively how he, as a digital thought leader, someone who positions himself as an Internet expert, could also write about climate change, the shift to the right, or migration, in other words, world problems in general. According to the motto: I’ll explain the world and its problems in 300 pages. Sascha Lobo replied: “You think that’s presumptuous? I know this argument: Here comes the hairstyle guy with his social media and thinks he can explain everything.” That’s not his point. He says, “My explanatory approach is the social bracket of reality shock, that’s where I know my stuff. In addition, I have noticed in many debates in recent years that the digital perspective was missing or underestimated. This is despite the fact that digitization is strongly intervening in almost all major problem areas, such as migration, which is a profoundly digital phenomenon.”
Sascha Lobo is convinced that digitization permeates every area today: be it politics – think of Trump and Twitter, culture or society as such, which is currently being shaped by the pandemic that has made much more digital possible in Germany than before: from work in the home office to lectures or lessons in school. In an interview with “Die Zeit” on this topic, he said: “The Corona crisis has taken us a very big step forward in terms of digitization. Not because there are suddenly digital services like Zoom, they existed before, but because people are now using them. If you think about progress, it rarely comes from new software or hardware, but from people changing their behavior.”
Today, digitization is an even more hot topic. The accomplished lecture speaker Sascha Lobo, with or without a haircut, is a good address right now. If you want to know more, Sascha Lobo is the right person to talk to.