Toluu

What's Next: Top Trends

A blog about trends (for grown-ups)

2009 Top TrendsJanuary 5

Here is trend #9 from my list of top consumer and business trends for 2009. It is perhaps worth mentioning that several people were writing about eco-cynics last year (and my own list of top trends for 2008 included eco-exhaustion). However, I think we were all a year too early and it will be 2009 that eco-cynicism really starts to bite.

Trend # 9: Eco-Cynics

People are becoming increasingly fed up with being told how to behave, especially from hypocritical and holier than thou politicians and celebrities that are driving a Toyota Prius one minute and stepping onto a private jet, wearing a fur coat, the next. There is even a UK-based arms manufacturer that is using lead-free bullets because they are kinder to the environment for heavens sake.

None of this is to say that acting on behalf of the environment is a bad thing. Far from it. It’s just that in many instances this new found environmental friendliness is nothing more than marketing hype and public relations spin – something green that’s cynically added to products and people to make them appear whiter than white.

I know of one US firm that uses the term ‘green plays’ for example. This could be an innocent phrase but I doubt it. A green play is more than likely one of many ‘plays’ that the company is trying out in the minds of mindless customers. Or how about the theme park in Australia with an Environment Shop. What’s inside this shop you ask? The answer is cute toy an

Future BlogJanuary 4

Another entry from the rather strange blog set in 2049 (sorry I’ve missed a few days). If you want to read this on a daily basis I suggest that you go direct to www.p40y.com….

“Spent the morning playing in the Softpark™ with Julie. No dramas although I did receive a platinum pmail in the afternoon from an organization that claimed to own the patent for “pushing a child to and fro on a seat attached by two or more chains, wires or ropes linked to a horizontal cross-member.” It looked like phone spam but its reliability rating made me think it could be for real so I passed it on to Jim.

The sea is unusually warm so I went for an early evening swim. It was lovely except for the trillions of tiny mirrors floating around in giant swarms. I know these are for the good of the planet but they don’t taste very nice when you get them in your mouth.

Had an interesting thought over dinner: If the human brain can remember and re-experience the past why can’t it pre-experience the future? I’m not even sure what this means but it made perfect sense at the time. Meaningless scribble. Can I really keep writing this stupid diary for another 363 days? I’m running out of things to say to myself already. Still, as the late, great Brian Eno once said of his own diary many years ago, anyone reading this will at least know a lot about the month of January.”

Happy 2049January 1

Just found this. Check out the posting date below! (not my posting date above).

Happy New Year to you, dear reader! I hope that 2049 will be a productive and anxiety-free year for you and your family.

Today I read something Oliver Sacks wrote many years ago about a man with a severe case of amnesia. His memory was 30 seconds long. Sacks said the patient was “isolated in a single moment of being with a moat of lacuna or forgetting all round him … he is a man without a past (or future), stuck in a constantly changing, meaningless moment”.

It may be a bit of a stretch but this remark reminds me of our present condition. We see and hear everything from around the world within an instant of it happening but we are generally unable to retain even a hint of these events for anything more than a day.

We are aghast at what happened last year but then instantly move on to be shocked by new horrors. We seem to be completely incapable of preserving new memories and are then bewildered at new events, despite the fact that they have happened before.

I think this is what’s fuelling our present sense of anxiety and bewilderment.

2009 Trends MapDecember 17 2008

Here, at last, is my 2009 trend blend map. Here’s how it works. The main body of the map contains the mega-trends. These are, in no particular order:

Global connectivity
Anxiety
Volatility
Uncertainty
Debt
Power shift Eastwards
Ageing
GRIN technologies
Digitalisation
Climate change
Sustainability

There are then eight arms, which represent the following sectors or areas:

Society
Technology
Economy
Environment
Politics
Business
Family
Media

The circles (or disc-like suckers in giant octopus speak) on each arm are the sector trends and the size of he circle is related to the likely impact of the trend over the next twelve months or so. Finally, there is a selection of global risks, some of which are deadly serious and some of which are not. Then again, everything is subjective. Some people might regard EMF radiation as a more serious global risk than Nicole Kidman winning another Oscar but I’m not so sure. Enjoy! ☺

PS - The map will appear at nowandnext.com under ‘trend maps’ shortly and will also have a hyperlink attached to it within 24-hrs.

Scenarios for 2009+December 16 2008

The 2009 trends map is coming very soon but in the meantime here is something else I’ve been working on with Oliver Freeman and Wayde Bull. The drivers of change used here are the general level of optimism and whether or not people will become socially active or passive. Top of mind is the environment in the broadest sense. I will post more about each of the four future worlds over the coming weeks.