Reader Stringer Bell asked a very interesting question:
There are things that will annoy or offend me, but nothing ever shocks me anymore. Do others feel the same? My generation sort of shocked my parents generation with our thoughts on sex, homosexuality, race, etc.
I’m sure the next generation will do the same to us, but I can’t imagine how. Like, how much progressive than me can my children be, haha?
So here are some of the predictions that I made:
♣ I think that we will see a very swift erosion of the boundaries between the public, and the private and the new generations will be a lot more comfortable with that than we are.
♣ I can also see people going in the direction of “endless childhood”, which is not a bad thing per se, but it can make old fogeys like me feel exasperated.
♣ Another thing I think might happen is people turning inwards and disentangling themselves from any political engagement. When I’m in a particularly bad mood, I envision presidential candidates having – instead of the debates in the format we are used to – singing or cooking competitions. The show can be called The Real American Idol and would be massively popular.
♣ I also think everybody will have their own online channel where they will stream live footage of their existences 24/7.
OK, that’s all I’ve got for now. What can you think of that might shock us about the future generations?
Clarissa's Blog 
I agree completely that the next generation will be more public and live much more of their lives online. But personally, I predict a backlash. Societies rarely move in a straight line towards radicalism. For instance, in most ways, the social structures of the 1950’s were considerably more rigid and oppresive than the structures of the 1920’s. So I think we are going to see something similar happening in the next 50 years or so.
I think the next generation or two will actually be less fluid and more “homesteady” if that makes sense. I think gay marriage will be common but that all couples–gay and straight– are going to go towards a more baby boomer family structure: one spouse at home while one works. Along these lines, I think there will be an increase in homeschooling and in tending to the home in general. There will be more gardening, home cooking, attachment parenting, and the family size will increase. I think people will move less–not more.
I don’t really want this to happen as I see it as regressive but I think that’s where the younger generations appear to be moving. I have been teaching at the university level for about 10 years and I am noticing more and more young women list “stay at home mom” as their top career goal; students seem to be placing more–not less empahsis– on traditional notions of “home.” So I think that is the upcoming trend. Anyway, that’s my two cent prediction. 🙂
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Yes, what you are saying is a definite possibility. However, there is one thing that stands in the way of this scenario: will the economy support this?
There needs to be a really booming economy and it needs to boom in “stable” industries. Meaning, industries that remain for decades in the town where its workers live. It’s hard right now to imagine what those industries can be. Manufacturers will not come back from China and Mexico, so what’s left?
The scenario you describe is definitely what most people would choose, that’s true, and there will be more of them. It’s a backlash, I agree. But as things stand now, I don’t see where the economic base for this structure will come. Even another Cold War, dividing the world into two camps, will not, I believe, create the booming economy you need to sustain this model.
Of course, there is an alternative. If people agree to a dramatic reduction in their standard of living, then this model can be sustained. But I mean, a dramatic reduction.
I need to think about this some more.
Thank you for this thought-provoking comment!!
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I think the medical field is going to vastly expand and that’s where most of the middle class will make their money.
I also think that there will be a slight drop in standard of living to some extent as more people “homestead.” If children are homeschooled for instance, then there is less need to spend money on clothes. Cloth diapers are overall cheaper than plastic diapers etc etc.
Of course not everyone will go the more extreme homesteading route. But I can foresee the following type of scenario: one spouse will be in the medical industry working long hours; the second spouse has some sort of part time/ work from home gig. Together, the income and a half will be enough to sustain this more conservative life style.
Then the generation after that will of course feel suffocated and THAT will be a more radical generation.
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It’s plausible, especially the part about the medical field. Of course, then this field will become a bubble and collapse because all these home-schooled children will not be able to get an education to have such jobs.
But there will have to be a big drop in consumer spending if this model is to be sustained.
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I believe that the convergence of Internet-based home delivery, broad legalisation of drugs, and increasing acceptance of working on the Internet will result in a new class of shut-ins, waiting on the Milk Plus drug van, the Amazon Fresh food van, and the UPS delivery van to bring whatever diversions and sustenance are required.
People will discover that these people have died only when their automatic bank drafts stop paying for rent and services …
So much for some people being “more public” through the Internet. 🙂
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// a very swift erosion of the boundaries between the public, and the private
For my grandmother’s and many of my mother’s generation, your blog would already be seen as such erosion. So, it’s only a matter of degree.
// “endless childhood”, which is not a bad thing per se
What do you mean? Why being irresponsible isn’t bad per se, unless such attitude would make life easier for permanently unemployed and function as a pain-killing drug to the disease of their situation?
// turning inwards and disentangling themselves from any political engagement
What’s the point of political engagement, if 1% will be the only people who count and give (or not) crumbs? You say modernity would turn most of us into serfs again. But this time without a way out?
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“For my grandmother’s and many of my mother’s generation, your blog would already be seen as such erosion. So, it’s only a matter of degree.”
– My mother still can’t get over me posting a photo of myself where I held the camera close to my face. “But people could see your pores!!!” she said in a tragic whisper. So yeah. . . 🙂
“What do you mean? Why being irresponsible isn’t bad per se, unless such attitude would make life easier for permanently unemployed and function as a pain-killing drug to the disease of their situation?”
– It’s fun, it’s enjoyable. Why did you and I choose not to have a family and four children by the age of 25? That’s why.
“You say modernity would turn most of us into serfs again.”
– You know it wasn’t me who said that. My ancestors were serfs, so what is the likelihood I’d compare their lives with those of people in the 1st world who will be kids until they die at the age of 120?
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Definitely a big shift away from what are seen now as “traditional” family structures and intimacies, and a much more fluid conception of who is your “family”.
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And here we have a conflicting scenario which is very valuable because it comes from a representative of the younger generation.
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I totally agree with ladyleahjane. The differences I see as are erosion of social norms around sexual arrangements and relationships. My friend’s mother whispered about a couple being ‘swingers’ and I had to laugh because less than half of the young couples I know practice strict monogamy, some are all out poly-amorous, and the majority fall in the middle of that spectrum. In my generation there seems to be less of a sense of obligation around family. People who have traumatizing families (myself included) don’t force themselves to go home for Christmas, whereas my mother dutifully sacrifices herself for her extended family despite their constant abuse.
The concept of blood mattering at all simply baffles me and many other people in my age group I know. There isn’t ‘family and friends’ there’s just friends – some people in the friend group are related by blood but that’s not a relevant aspect of the relationship.
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Thank you, Ellie, this is very interesting. And it supports my original point about erosion of attachments and a continued collapse of the nuclear family.
People you describe are much more likely to question any kind of authority, distrust “the party line” and practice independent thinking. So this is good news.
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Your predictions are definitely right, Clarissa. I’m 12 years younger than you, I think, and none of the things you suppose will come true shock me. Make me think “meh, that’s not how I’d live my life”, yes, but not shock.
One thing that you haven’t mentioned about the public/private dichotomy though is the increased use of the symbolic to navigate the needs to know/doesn’t need to know dichotomy. There’s been quite a bit of stuff written about the subject (teens and their use of Instagram, for example), but, to describe the way I do things, the social network site I’m most comfortable with is centered around music, and shows to others whatever I’ve been listening to at every chosen moment. Someone who knows me intimately can figure out the changes in my mood very easily just by looking at what I’ve been listening to. Someone who doesn’t will figure out little past the fact that I mostly listen to goth, metal and related genres.
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“the social network site I’m most comfortable with is centered around music, and shows to others whatever I’ve been listening to at every chosen moment. Someone who knows me intimately can figure out the changes in my mood very easily just by looking at what I’ve been listening to.”
– I had no idea this existed. This sounds absolutely amazing. It’s like my blog but with music instead of words. What a great thing!
And I’m glad that young people confirm my predictions.
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http://www.last.fm if you want to have a look around
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Re: stay-at-home mom: Are the undergraduate women desiring this status willing to be the stay-at-home moms that wonder if they are going to be able to afford rent, or are these young women fantasizing about hitting the jackpot with a good-looking young man with considerable inherited wealth? Which undergraduate women are we talking about? Yalies, who have a selection of wealthy boys at hand? Your Average Community College, which by definition will not have wealthy students?
As for lack of political engagement, how much less engaged can the public get? It is notable when non-Presidential federal elections get a turnout of over 50% of eligible voters. Federal non-Presidential primaries get a turnout of between 5% and 20%, usually hovering around 10%.
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On the political engagement deal: Dems and Repubs certainly talk a great deal of difference, and they certainly treat each other as boogeymen, but do they really act that differently? I’m not from the US so it’s quite possible that there’s a lot I don’t really see, but it seems to me like the most politically opinionated young people in the US are libertarians, and one of their main complaint points is that the two main political parties really are quite similar in actions, if not necessarily in gestures
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The US Libertarians are already in the “eternal childhood” model. I was thinking of them when I wrote that part.
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My students are from a demographic where they don’t entertain any fantasies about rich princes and not having a job. They find such discussions boring because they are far removed from their reality. The goal for them is to have a job that will allow them not to have a second and a third job.
As for political disengagement, I was not joking about the presidential cooking show.
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Exactly. The New York Times runs the occasional “Well educated women prefer being stay-at-hom-moms” story. Not so the Belleville News-Democrat.
As for politics, I leave you with this aphorism: “Politics is show-biz for ugly people”.
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This would be a movement toward more narcissism, or what in Western culture we have come to understand as the project of constantly building and shoring up “self-esteem”.
I actually anticipate a movement away from this tendency, although probably also a schisming , as people realize that they can survive materially and even socially on less than they had imagined they would have needed.
So on one side of society, you would have these overwrought childish types, who become more apolitical as they conflate their own feelings and sensations with politics. On the other, you will have those who are almost completely self-reliant and have learned to make do with as little input from “society” as possible.
Meanwhile there will be some massive winners and tyrants who suck up all the power and try to create fiefdoms.
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There will be nothing to drink but Brawndo.
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Well, it does have what plants crave.
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Futurists are always good for a laugh. The problem is how long you have to wait for the punch line.
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Nobel Prize-Winning Economist: We’re Headed for Oligarchy
Robert Solow on powerful families’ threat to democratic institutions.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/nobel-prize-winning-economist-were-heading-for-oligarchy/361200/
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I’ll throw this idea out here.
Are we in peak digital (similar to peak oil)?
That is, digital (loosely defined as computing and phoning devices) seemed to reach their peak of efficiency (in helping people be productive with work, vocational and avocational) around 3-5 years ago and have since been in active retreat.
New innovations do not make them more efficient for people that use them at work and actually make them less efficient and less productive as innovations are almost entirely oriented around keeping people entertained and/or distracted (at the personal rather than professional level).
The first step down that path was word 2007 (mostly a big step backwards from what had been before) and more programs (and the basic function of the internet and computers and phones) have been following suit. If things don’t change they’ll be all but unusable for normal non-tech-heads within a few years except for trivial idiotic pursuits (I probably need a new laptop but am scared to death at the idea of trying to use the designed-for-bubble-heads windows 8… brrrrrr).
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