The challenges younger generations face today can at times feel overwhelming. Often the source of responsibility is pointed at older generations who are presumed responsible for the mess younger people now have to deal with. I believe "blameworthiness" is an undercurrent that contaminates, rather than enlighten our ability to understand the dynamic of age...
Last week I was standing dumbfounded at the CVS' greeting card isle trying to look for a Father's Day card for my husband. None of us are very conventional, and the typical pre-authored Hallmark card has rarely satisfied my somewhat snooty European taste. Somehow Hallmark seems to be in competition...
I recently came across an article in Aeon called "Against Generations", which is one of the harshest, yet most eloquent critiques of generational research I have read. Author Rebecca Onion disagrees with the epistemological justification for segmenting people based on age cohort, and (rightly) contends...
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at Free Digital Photos[/caption]
According to psychologists who measure things like high rates of materialism, narcissism, the millennials have grown into adulthood with some serious personality problems which the baby boomers lacked. The entire nation is worrying about the present financial condition and the steps that the generations need to take in order to keep debts at bay. The analysts see a clash between the baby boomers and the young generation in accordance with the way they handle their finances and this is what is leading to a huge gap between the two aforementioned generations. While the current seniors are still in the process of learning how to handle their finances, the young generation is already suffering due to the wrong steps taken by them. The younger generation seems to be stressed over debt, thereby making savings a distant dream. The concerns of this article will deal with the different financial problems faced by the seniors and the young and the message that the seniors would love to pass on the young adults to save the economy from crushing.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but I don't have near enough infographics on this blog! So here's my very special Election Day Post that aspires to be the pop-cultural, right brained amateur version of Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog. Well not quite exactly, but...
It is widely believed that the solution to many of the world's ills goes through the empowerment of women and especially female children. By allowing girls the resources and freedom to grow up healthy and educated we can reduce the world population, increase entrepreneurialism and...
I Don't Know How She Does It All. GPS- supported access to caffeine-related refueling stations. That's how she does it! It turns out parents of the Homeland generation, i.e. the parent demographic who themselves tend to belong to younger Generation X parents and older Millennials,...
For a child born today, what will the world look like in 2100? This is the topic of a special section of The Futurist, September- October issue. Via scenarios and forecasts from some of the leading expert within foresight, we get a glimpse into what it will mean to be 88 at the dawn of the next century. This is the future of the Homeland generation. Millennials will be 96 to 120 if they are alive and some of them will. Some scenarios make me infer that some Generation X members are still with us as "post-centenarians". Others take the the transhumanist/singulitarian view that we have passed the point where we will be able to live forever.
The trends and emerging issues covered range from energy, climate changes, economic systems, space travel, scientific breakthroughs - particularly in biology and computing – and of course, aging.
Extreme longevity seems to show up in many of the narratives, reflecting long anticipated breakthroughs in medicine, computing and biotechnology. Resource depletion combined with resource scarcity, governmental issues and dwelling patterns are other issues.
The “mood” of these forecasts, or the level of pessimism vs. optimism, seems to be in line with most futurist projections: If and when we can manage to reform ourselves before we totally ruin the planet, it’s going to worse only until it gets better. Similar to cycle theories like the Kondratiev long waves or Strauss and Howe’s generational predictions, we will most likely go through a period of crisis - a period we have already entered - before we enter a new “high period”.
Dr. William Halal and Laura B Huhn from TechCast believe a new high tech era will occur around 2020. This view is similar to that of Olli Hietanen and Marko Ahvenainen, Finland Futures Research Centre, who forecast a Sixth Kondratieff wave (2010 – 2050) based on new innovation and technologies within biotechnology. The Sixth wave differs from the Fifth because of the increasingly rising prices on raw materials and energy. The new paradigm in innovation and production is likely to be within molecular, or synthetic, biology, which will allow us to grow and change structures from raw biological materials. Just think about all the experiments happening with stem cells and organ scaffolding in the labs today! Not to mention biological 3-D printing. Tissue engineering will enable us to grow new organs and artificial meats, even biodegradable polymers to be used in manufacturing. These prospects might be frightening to some, conjuring up 19th and 20th century sci-fi dystopias like Frankenstein and Brave New World. But for most futurists, the unsustainable alternative of status quo is often much scarier!
Do you have a tween at home? A kid grown tired with your pre-packaged, PG rated stuff, yet who’s still too young to be allowed to choose products and entertainment for themselves? Well, guess what – they’re making their own choices and you’re not the only...
When the New Silents look back on the month of January 2012, they might recall a few contradictory events that had bearings on how they handle digital information. On January the 5th Sweden officially recognized Det Missionerande Kopimistsamfundet (the Missionary "Copy-me" society) by granting it religious status, which in essence sanctifies the act of file sharing. This
political gift to file sharers can only be seen as endowing moral righteousness to an activity that usually is viewed as immoral and illegal. Contrarily, on January 18th websites like Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Mozilla and others blacked out their websites in protests of the anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA that were up for voting in the U.S.
Congress. Anti anti-piracy advocates argued the bills if enacted were flawed and would go far beyond preventing illegal file sharing, but in reality open the floodgates for internet censorship. After 4 million petition signatures and 250,000 messages to Congress, several legislators changed their minds and killed the bills. For now anyway. Yet the very next day FBI
