My blog about Czech Republic has long stopped being about Czech Republic, so today I'll share my thoughts about what our next generation will be like and why.
The backstory - I'm from the generation that gets trolled online by everyone - millennials. Those losers who are constantly online and don't communicate face-to-face.
Why is it important to discuss what the next generation will be like?
Simple. As soon as my generation became solvent (about 10 years ago), technology and business started changing to please me, not pensioners. Yes, the fact that you can buy a plane ticket in 5 minutes online, not through Alla who works at a travel agency - that's my achievement. Simply because I, who have times more money than the previous generation, want it this way and not otherwise.
And here's what's interesting - in about 5 years a new generation will enter the workforce - Generation Z (no better name invented yet). And this means soon even my ass will be less comfortable. I'll tell you what will likely change and what we should all start getting used to now.
Popularization of Extroversion
I grew up on technologies created by introverts for introverts. I could sit alone in a room and ask Google a question, silently typing on keys. I write a blog, can say anything and avoid conflict in real life. Instead of gathering 20 friends and showing off with money by buying everyone cake, I'll take a photo for Instagram where I stand looking good.
The next generation grew up on these same principles, but will go in a more reasonable direction. They want to communicate even more (we had enough with a little). Apps like Kwai and Musical.ly are popular now - kids aren't afraid to dance, make faces and do other crazy stuff. We were scared, they're not anymore.
Artificial intelligence and voice control will also play their role. My generation communicated too often in chats and with Google. Voice communication is more extroverted. If you ask your speaker 20 times a day how it's doing and what's the weather, you'll meet friends in person and won't freeze when you need to start a dialogue - you've been talking all day anyway.
Services based on existing ones but more open will gain popularity. Instead of blogs - video, instead of chats - voice messages.
Feminization
The generation before mine launched the third wave of feminism when they taught women contraception. After a couple of sexual revolutions, girls of my generation learned that sex is also for fun. Getting sex became even easier for women - post a photo of your ass on Instagram and 200 interested parties appear.
This caused an unprecedented problem - sex became hard to get for men who were somewhere in the middle of the food chain. Out of 200 interested parties, maybe one or two will be lucky. This caused a boom in the porn industry - there was no other way. Today this has lowered the average marriage age, meaning we can live "for ourselves" a bit longer - until about 25.
And since by this time many of us accumulate money, a whole category of "ego-scratching" products appeared, like iPhones.
What's next? More of the same, only much more. More services for satisfying sexual needs of both sexes will appear.
Blurring Gender Boundaries
The previous point is indirectly related to this. Women got a chance to work in the same positions as men. Even technical jobs no longer require a purely male approach - more and more software has stopped being complex systems (remember Linux 10 years ago or 1-C). Now it's enough to click and drag with a mouse, and you can move mountains.
Suddenly it turned out that women sometimes like what only men used to like, and vice versa. That's why smartphones with great cameras and design appeared (instead of men's half-kilogram phones). That's why high-tech vacuum cleaners appeared - I admit, even I wanted one.
Vacuum "for boys"
Yes, technologies with design that stops being intended for a specific gender await us. Computers will be pretty, washing machines will stop being white with streamlined forms.
Content - Here and Now
Before me, people loved cinema - content that cost a shitload of money and time. My generation loved YouTube - content that costs little but has a good idea. We essentially stopped caring about execution and detail work - we want the idea. That's why videos and articles like "10 ways to lose weight in a week" are popular today. We want the idea, and don't care that the idea is bad.
The next generation will step toward content that costs zero time. Completely online, improvised. There will be more and more streams. People who are in interesting places right now and have something to show will be popular. Blogs like mine will gradually die out.
Procrastination
Our generation fell for the trick of clever capitalists - we spend a lot of time consuming content, wasted. Facebook won't let us go, making the feed more and more interesting specifically for you. Instagram likes make us post more and more crap photos because it's addictive.
Sadly, I think everything will only get worse. The new generation's habits are already formed from childhood (instead of balls and firecrackers, everyone got tablets to keep them quiet), there will be more and more services for consuming content and fewer for creating it. Don't believe me - compare what's easier - watching a video on YouTube or uploading a video to YouTube? What's easier, reading my blog or writing one just like it, only shittier?
Smart Technologies
Our generation got used to seeking answers but making decisions ourselves. Conditionally speaking, we go to Google, type something in search and choose ourselves which of those 10 results is most relevant.
Today's trend is clear - decisions will be made for us. We'll ask - which cafe nearby to go to? And instead of five dots on a map, like now, we'll be told - go to "Horns and Hooves", it has the best reviews, not far to walk and good prices.
Today's artificial intelligence is learning to give definitive answers, which is both good (we'll buy the cheapest pan faster) and bad (we won't be sure it's the cheapest).
Information presentation and consciousness manipulation will especially change. We'll get used to believing everything the search engine tells us. And then one day on the query "best party in Russia" it will tell us "Communist Party". We'll have to believe it, the computer analyzed everything.
Everything Based on Data
As a child I lived in Kaluga, where public transport stopped running after seven because minibus drivers didn't want to drive three passengers.
Before, demand was studied by a guy with paper - sees three people at the stop, writes down three. Today we analyze data smartly - we know that exactly at 18:12 at such-and-such stop there will be a lot of people because the computer analyzed data for a year and understood that exactly at this time a bunch of plankton exits the office and needs to be taken home. And instead of running 5 buses with 2-minute intervals, we'll run one big one exactly at 18:12.
The new generation will get more and more goodies based on data collection. Buses will run better, prices will normalize. The cinema will give you a discount on exactly the film that's interesting for you - a white male student aged 23 with interest in programming and cooking. But some will be less lucky - it'll turn out that on average white 23-year-old male students poorly repay loan debts, meaning they'll have to approve only high interest.
In short, what I wanted to say with all this. As throughout human history, there will be both goodies and problems. If you're smart, you can hustle in advance and start doing something that will be interesting to people in the future.
Just imagine what would've been if I'd been a bit smarter and started making YouTube videos in 2013 instead of this boring blog?