Dearest readers, futurism is a b***h. I know people who took the history of futurism in universities and I keep hearing about how difficult it is to try to predict what the future will look like, and that the percentage of accurate predictions made by the rich, the famous and the academics/scientists is very low. While the main reason for this may be that the most popular predictions are made by people not in tune with the masses' hopes for the future, I think it's also because we don't have a clear grasp on how people will react to expected and unexpected innovations as they happen, and what sentiment will win in the public debate each and every time. With that said, I'm going to give it a try based on what I'm seeing happen around us in terms of innovation and evolution of values and priorities, giving myself a timeline of a generation or less.
Here it goes.
The first thing to look at is the rise of Me Culture and how there are little kids being born and growing up without having firsthand experience of the earlier period.Social media, selfies, sharing everything and anything, getting followers and trying to become famous... it may tone down, but it's difficult to imagine it going away altogether. As annoying as it is at times, it generates revenue, pushes technological development, and it serves as a mirror to what we are and what we could become (for better or for worse). Once these kids start getting married and having babies, their parenting is going to be radically different than the helicopter parenting of the past few decades. During the previous period, sacrificing yourself and losing yourself completely in taking care of your kids, shielding them and hovering over them has been the norm. Many people sacrificed health and beauty, their own happiness and even their marriages- everything became subservient to their kids. Thing is, it ostensibly wasn't necessary and has never been necessary to the extent that it spiralled out of control. For the longest time before that, most kids were taught to be clever, self-reliant, take care of themselves and their younger siblings, run around with friends and come home before dark, even fight to defend themselves from wannabe bullies, all the while avoiding creepy and dangerous adults. How do I know this? Not from personal experience (sadly), but from stories of those friends who are older than me, as they talk about this whenever the topic comes up. True, kids were exposed to more dangers and risks, but all this parental control, self-sacrifice and helicopter parenting have come up against the law of diminishing returns; no matter what you do, kids still get hurt, kids still die (unfortunately), and sometimes all that effort only protects them until college, delaying the inevitable for most of them, as you ultimately cannot save them from themselves. I think Generation Me will do things the way rich people have always done. Hire a nanny, be more strict than the previous generation, and finally devote themselves to their careers, their date nights, their long-term health and happiness, and put their significant other and their marriage above being a parent. This does not mean less care for the kids. This means teaching kids early on to be self-reliant and responsible, and putting some of the responsibilities on their shoulders early on. Kids will also learn to respect thair parents' marriage, needs, aspirations and will work as team members rather than lounge around as little emperors. This will be doubly acceptable as the job market and the society in general become more competitive and less forgiving- especially in urban hubs. People are going to start giving each other less and less breaks and having kids will no longer be a powerful beat-all excuse for not doing this or that or the other thing. This is especially true as more people in urban hubs remain single and childless. Generation Me and the changes it will bring are therefore a defense mechanism that will not only allow them to survive, but to thrive as well. After all, if the parents fail, the kids will be in trouble so parents will need to put themselves first and deal with challenges of the new age.
The second thing I see happening is related to parenting as well; I think we are to expect a significant rise in the use of surrogates- at home and abroad. It may seem weird now, but anyone who has ever been wealthy and busy in almost any developed civilization in the history of mankind has outsourced everything they could related to child rearing. Nannies, wet nurses, teachers... everything they could. Surrogacy was the one thing off limits to the rich as the medical technology simply wasn't there. In a world where even the middle class is rising (contrary to popular belief), surrogacy is the last thing about outsourcing child rearing (for the lack of a better expression) that will be handed down from the rich to those in the middle. This will become especially attractive to women who have powerful careers that are very vulnerable to taking time off or even slowing down for a few months. Also, as many women tend to have kids later in life, surrogacy may be a safer bet for them and their significant others. I know, it sounds controversial- until it inevitably no longer does.
Finally, a less controversial prediction that has to do with money. I see a rise in financial education from the earliest days of a child's education, and a focus on teaching them to invest, budget and thoroughly evaluate and control their spending habits. With the rise of robo advisers and discount brokers, the next generation of middle class will be heavily involved in markets through self-directed portfolios. Some people will make it their side hustle and grow it into a passive income stream over time. More and more of this new generation will retire with a million dollars to invest manually and live off of the gains, and will do so easily as they would have already been investing actively for decades, accumulating a huge amount of experience in the process. The second thing I see rising is the number of boot-strapped small businesses and side hustles that people will start for as little as 5K to 10K, with the goal of quickly getting them to automate or semi-automate. Once that is achieved, it's a nice almost-passive income stream that adds to the main source of income with minimum hassle. The days of risky business plans, huge loans to start a business and the moon or bust attitudes will all but come to an end.
What do you think? Do you see these predictions already happening in the middle class?
Here it goes.
The first thing to look at is the rise of Me Culture and how there are little kids being born and growing up without having firsthand experience of the earlier period.Social media, selfies, sharing everything and anything, getting followers and trying to become famous... it may tone down, but it's difficult to imagine it going away altogether. As annoying as it is at times, it generates revenue, pushes technological development, and it serves as a mirror to what we are and what we could become (for better or for worse). Once these kids start getting married and having babies, their parenting is going to be radically different than the helicopter parenting of the past few decades. During the previous period, sacrificing yourself and losing yourself completely in taking care of your kids, shielding them and hovering over them has been the norm. Many people sacrificed health and beauty, their own happiness and even their marriages- everything became subservient to their kids. Thing is, it ostensibly wasn't necessary and has never been necessary to the extent that it spiralled out of control. For the longest time before that, most kids were taught to be clever, self-reliant, take care of themselves and their younger siblings, run around with friends and come home before dark, even fight to defend themselves from wannabe bullies, all the while avoiding creepy and dangerous adults. How do I know this? Not from personal experience (sadly), but from stories of those friends who are older than me, as they talk about this whenever the topic comes up. True, kids were exposed to more dangers and risks, but all this parental control, self-sacrifice and helicopter parenting have come up against the law of diminishing returns; no matter what you do, kids still get hurt, kids still die (unfortunately), and sometimes all that effort only protects them until college, delaying the inevitable for most of them, as you ultimately cannot save them from themselves. I think Generation Me will do things the way rich people have always done. Hire a nanny, be more strict than the previous generation, and finally devote themselves to their careers, their date nights, their long-term health and happiness, and put their significant other and their marriage above being a parent. This does not mean less care for the kids. This means teaching kids early on to be self-reliant and responsible, and putting some of the responsibilities on their shoulders early on. Kids will also learn to respect thair parents' marriage, needs, aspirations and will work as team members rather than lounge around as little emperors. This will be doubly acceptable as the job market and the society in general become more competitive and less forgiving- especially in urban hubs. People are going to start giving each other less and less breaks and having kids will no longer be a powerful beat-all excuse for not doing this or that or the other thing. This is especially true as more people in urban hubs remain single and childless. Generation Me and the changes it will bring are therefore a defense mechanism that will not only allow them to survive, but to thrive as well. After all, if the parents fail, the kids will be in trouble so parents will need to put themselves first and deal with challenges of the new age.
The second thing I see happening is related to parenting as well; I think we are to expect a significant rise in the use of surrogates- at home and abroad. It may seem weird now, but anyone who has ever been wealthy and busy in almost any developed civilization in the history of mankind has outsourced everything they could related to child rearing. Nannies, wet nurses, teachers... everything they could. Surrogacy was the one thing off limits to the rich as the medical technology simply wasn't there. In a world where even the middle class is rising (contrary to popular belief), surrogacy is the last thing about outsourcing child rearing (for the lack of a better expression) that will be handed down from the rich to those in the middle. This will become especially attractive to women who have powerful careers that are very vulnerable to taking time off or even slowing down for a few months. Also, as many women tend to have kids later in life, surrogacy may be a safer bet for them and their significant others. I know, it sounds controversial- until it inevitably no longer does.
Finally, a less controversial prediction that has to do with money. I see a rise in financial education from the earliest days of a child's education, and a focus on teaching them to invest, budget and thoroughly evaluate and control their spending habits. With the rise of robo advisers and discount brokers, the next generation of middle class will be heavily involved in markets through self-directed portfolios. Some people will make it their side hustle and grow it into a passive income stream over time. More and more of this new generation will retire with a million dollars to invest manually and live off of the gains, and will do so easily as they would have already been investing actively for decades, accumulating a huge amount of experience in the process. The second thing I see rising is the number of boot-strapped small businesses and side hustles that people will start for as little as 5K to 10K, with the goal of quickly getting them to automate or semi-automate. Once that is achieved, it's a nice almost-passive income stream that adds to the main source of income with minimum hassle. The days of risky business plans, huge loans to start a business and the moon or bust attitudes will all but come to an end.
What do you think? Do you see these predictions already happening in the middle class?