TRENDS FOR THE NEXT ERA

Well I wish I could tell you that all the trends for 2010 would have us behaving socially responsibly, perfect global citizens and volunteering with our every free moment…But while there are some wonderful rays of hope not every trend is as positive as we might like! On the upside, we are seeing movement toward not just shop locally but grow your own (is your own chicken next year’s must have item???) and young people returning to a more simple way of life seemingly as a true way of life! So here is a sense of what our next decade has to offer!
Presto Chango: These days there is nothing we can’t trade, swap, or borrow . From baby goods to a couture gown, the last purse we bought to our apartment for a week, just about everything these days that we buy or do is temporary. When you can’t afford to buy it, you might as well rent it. When you get tired of it, go ahead and trade it, or sell it! While the trend sure makes it easier to get a new look, life or experience, it certainly makes one wonder what it tells young people about permanence when virtually everything is bound to end up on ebay.
Eco Everything: Forget just carrying your sigg bottle, market tote and driving a hybrid. Being eco conscious is so, well, last decade. Moving forward you’ll need to be heading to an eco spa, having an eco wedding, cooking with green pans, measuring your homes energy efficiency with an energy hub, and not just tending your own herb garden but cultivating your own live chickens! We’ve come to realize that it’s not about recycling it’s about precycling where we need to really take charge for how we effect the world! And while we’d love to attribute all of this “do-gooding” to raised awareness, a lot can also be attributed to the fact that much saves you money in the end. And in this economy, that’s an eco-essential.

Simple Simons: Call it necessity, call it “a readjustment” — but people really are starting to live a more simple life. The new status symbol is doing “less” than the joneses’ because we all know the joneses are far too excessive anyway! From buying things we only really “need,” to focusing on old fashioned values and stricter parenting, it seems that a decade of excess seems to have led to a time when simplicity is not just a buzz word but a better word.

Social Narrowcasting: As we tire of communicating with thousands of people (and EVERYONE knowing EVERYTHING about our EVERY move) we may look to more niche ways to network, where some know a few choice things, and others know more. With sites like foursquare, gowalla, ning, and even Facebook is changing their privacy rules, it’s clear how we pick our friends may soon change.