Trends 2019 Strangers in a Strange Land
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TRENDS 2019 STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND Culture Forecast / January 2019 Trends 2019: Strangers in a Strange Land Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS Navigating this report FRONT MATTER Methodology 04 About Q 05 The Elements of Culture 06 Forces Shaping Culture in 2019 07 Preface 09 Three Driving Cultural Forces in 2019 10 The 15 Trends Shaping Culture in 2019 11 LIVING IN THE SHADOWS Welcome to the Uncanny Valley 17 Identity Integrity 23 Negotiated Reality 31 Accepted Deception 39 Emerging Trends: Spiritual Selfishness + Vetting as a Service 47 Implications for Business & Organizations 50 CTRL-ALT-ESCAPE Technology Giveth — and Taketh Away 53 Tunneling 59 Semi-Presence 67 Thingsourcing 75 Emerging Trends: It’s Complicated + Digital Minimalism 83 Implications for Business & Organizations 86 BREAKING THE ORDINARY The Definition of Us Continues To Expand 89 Algorithms as New Demographics 95 Renorming 105 Rethinking Humanity 113 Emerging Trends: Blank Like Me + Instant Counterculture 123 Implications for Business & Organizations 127 FINAL THOUGHTS On “Hopefunk” 130 Endnote 131 The Team 132 3 Trends 2019: Strangers in a Strange Land Methodology METHODOLOGY Data-driven and expert-informed cultural intelligence. 1 2 3 deep personalization trolling blurred ID shadow + world reality manipulation DATA CULTURAL CULTURAL ANALYTICS FORENSICS LISTENING Using our active learning system We conducted desk research using We used a suite of proprietary tools Q,™ we identified high-energy, public and academic databases to and methodologies to explore and high-momentum macro trends understand the deep contexts of analyze hundreds of millions of with strong current and near- the three macro trends and to cultural conversations to future relevance and explored frame algorithms we subsequently understand how consumers have their interactions with adjacent used in our cultural listening. engaged with these macro trends forces of change. over the past 12 months. 4 5 6 CULTURAL SIGNAL PATTERN REWIND CLUSTERING RECOGNITION We analyzed how these We organized and mapped these We examined the signal clusters to conversations have evolved, signals thematically, then expanded surface patterns of change that putting the spotlight on topics, the conversations to surface point to emerging cultural forces ideas and phenomena that adjacent and associated concepts — new and relevant trends with a generated the most energetic with significant cultural energy. high likelihood of impacting and polarized engagement. brands, institutions and consumers in 2019. 4 Trends 2019: Strangers in a Strange Land Methodology ABOUT QTM sparks & honey uses cultural intelligence to help organizations understand and take advantage of accelerating change. QTM is our cultural intelligence platform which structures data from thousands of sources to visualize cultural change in real time. The system draws on cultural experts and observers from around the world, while applying proprietary methodologies, tools, algorithms and human insights to provide cultural intelligence to a diverse range of organizations. PATENTS ACADEMIA STARTUPS MARKETS SEARCH How we translate culture SOCIAL into structured data REVIEWS TM MUSIC VIDEO INDUSTRY VERTICALS 5 Trends 2019: Strangers in a Strange Land Methodology ELEMENTS OF CULTURE The Elements of Culture are sparks & honey’s proprietary framework of persistent, culturally relevant forces that shape attitudes and behavior. They are organized into Mega Trends (larger forces impacting culture at scale over generational spans) and Macro Trends (smaller but still widespread forces with greater energy but more volatility). distributed micro market sleep as trust economies immersive fragmentation foundation quantified social enterprise reskilling kidult life shopping incubators ancient brand civil wisdom extremism aspiration technomaladies servants data human digital detox memory divinity management premium refreshed classics smart flattening foster tech moodgeisting new wellness self-sustaining taboo semantics design energy toppling brand snack media longevity new sobriety edible tech activist crowd sparks & honey tracks 129 economy warm tech eco hacking play Elements of Culture — 52 shadow blurred ID hack life world extrasensory raw Mega Trends and 77 Macro Trends — through our new masculinity frictionless clean simplexity neural cultural intelligence system QTM and thousands of other power constant sustainability woman connection imperfect low rez mainstream and emerging trends, such as the ones hyperculture smallscaling life logic mixed reality ephemeral shared in this report. radical mind visceral transparency management micro tribes biomimicry Our Elements of Culture are waste cross reality unfree singletons positive culturalism manipulation updated regularly to reflect organic and disruptive shifts access female death ageism anti-science economy gaze positivity in the cultural landscape. information privacy predictive major inequality rights systems minorstones magic C corporate premium living unbanking coin friction matter squealing moral deep new background as imperative shifting soils personalization space age foreground outsiders modern cellular welcome labriculture unmoney family neo-celebrity time forest absurdism urbanization poverty bathing digital defictionalization tech drugs immortality super human provenance noah’s disaster archive design infobesity income gap globals drone economy maximalism beauty rx nano mashup extreme air rights augmented safety life intelligence extension work shift bottomless robots open supermoney wellness everywhere long view artletics MEGA TRENDS self made third act MACRO TRENDS adaptive augmented alternative design reality rights proteins trolling 6 Trends 2019: Strangers in a Strange Land Methodology FORCES SHAPING CULTURE IN 2019 The trends identified in this report were generated by analyzing the interactions of three driving forces — Shadow World, Technomaladies and Outsiders Welcome. These three forces are Elements of Culture that, based on our platform, have the greatest energy and momentum heading into 2019, with 24 other EOCs. We then explored the attitudinal and behavioral shifts emerging at their intersections. DISTRIBUTED TRUST: TRUST IS NO LONGER TECHNOMALADIES: GROWING BODY OF CENTRALIZED, BUT FRAGMENTED ACROSS NETWORKS DISORDERS STEMMING FROM TECHNOLOGY distributed micro marketADVANCING FASTER THAN HUMANS sleepCAN as ADAPT trust economies immersive fragmentation foundation DATA DIVINITY: BIG AND SMALL DATA ARE BEING quantified social reskilling kidult GENERATED AND LEVERAGEDlife IN NEW WAYS shopping ancient brand civil wisdom extremism aspiration technomaladies TABOO TOPPLINGservants: GREATER ACCEPTANCE OF PREVIOUSLY VILIFIED BEHAVIORS OR PREFERENCES data human digital detox memory divinity management premium refreshed classics smart flattening DIGITAL DETOX: DISCONNECTINGfoster tech FROM AND moodgeisting BLURRED RESPONSIBILITY: UNCERTAINTY AS PROTECTING ONESELF FROM TECHNOLOGY TO OWNERSHIP OF LARGE, COMPLICATED ISSUES new wellness self-sustaining taboo semantics design energy toppling brand snack media longevity new sobriety edible tech activist crowd SHADOW WORLD: FACING UNSETTLING warm tech play economy ENCOUNTERS, EXPERIENCES AND EMOTIONSeco hacking THAT FORCE US TO RECONSIDER THE FABRIC OF REALITY shadow blurred ID hack life world extrasensory raw UNAPOLOGETIC: BOLDLY OWNING CHOICES AND CONSTANT CONNECTION: A DEFAULT STATE OF BEHAVIORS WITHOUT CONCERN FOR JUDGMENT ALWAYS-ON DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY new masculinity frictionless clean simplexity neural LIFE LOGIC: LEVERAGING THE INTERCONNECTED BLURRED ID: CHALLENGING BINARY CONCEPTS OF power constant GENDER, RACE, ETHNICITY,sustainability SEXUALITY AND ABILITY woman connection ECOSYSTEMimperfect OF LIFE low rez hyperculture smallscaling life logic mixed reality BIOMIMICRYephemeral : COPYING NATURAL FORCES, PRIVACY RIGHTS: DATA PRIVACY INCREASINGLY PATTERNS AND STRUCTURES radical mind visceral BEING UNDERSTOODtransparency AS A HUMAN RIGHT management micro tribes biomimicry CROSS CULTURALISM: EMBRACING FLUID, SQUEALING: PERSISTENT FACTIONALIZATION OF SELF-DETERMINED IDENTITY AND CODESWITCHING REALITYenterprise MANIPULATION: HACKING HUMAN cross waste incubators OPINIONS AND HEATED DEBATE unfree singletons positive culturalism SENSES WITH FALSIFIED IMAGES, VIDEO AND AUDIO MORAL IMPERATIVE: REVERSION TO THE access female death EMBRACING OF TRADITIONAL,ageism HUMANISTIC MORAL anti-science economy gaze positivity CODES information privacy predictive major reality inequality rights systems minorstones manipulation C corporate premium living unbanking coin friction matter squealing PREDICTIVE SYSTEMS: THE APPLICATION OF MACHINE LEARNING TO FORECASTING moral deep new imperative shifting soils personalization DEEP PERSONALIZATIONspace age : BROAD INTEGRATIONmagic OF DATA FOR PERSONALIZATION OF EXPERIENCES outsiders modern cellular welcome labriculture unmoney family TIME POVERTY: INCREASINGLYneo-celebrity BUSY SCHEDULES TURNING TIME INTO THE MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE time forest background as urbanization poverty bathing foreground digital defictionalization tech drugs immortality super human provenance OUTSIDERS WELCOME: THOSE TRADITIONALLY OR HISTORICALLY PERCEIVED AS THE “OTHER” BEING PERCEPTUAL DIVERSITY: PERCEIVING THE noah’s disaster BROUGHT INTO THE MAINSTREAMarchive design absurdism WORLD ACROSS MODALITIES AND BELIEFincome gap SYSTEMS globals drone PROVENANCE: PRESERVING, TRACKING AND economy maximalism beauty rx nano mashup CELEBRATING HISTORY AND HERITAGE