“Remember! Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram; buy gold, bye!” – Bill Cipher, Gravity Falls
Researching trends can be hard. Trying to understand something that is quite a foreign concept[1] can be daunting, and trying to have it fit into a pattern when you understand it in a way that isn’t quite exactly right can be a challenge and an embarrassing situation[2]. But honestly, that’s the fun of being a futurist: learning new things and exposing them to the greater public, even if they don’t believe you (but they will in a few months. Trust me).
No, the difficult part will always be looking at the trends that immediately make you cringe and want to click the quit button on your browser. It’s those trends that make you stare at the article and think, “…but why?” over and over again until you drive yourself crazy[3]. But you, as a budding (or senior) futurist, know that you have to put it in your portfolio of trends so that it can be compiled into one of the greatest scenarios ever written.
…or not.
The truth is, there are some folks new to the futurist game, or those thrown into it, who haven’t quite understood the assignment, who immediately dismiss trends that they deem “not gonna happen,” not because the research shows that we’re veering the other way, but because they don’t like it. It’s like holding onto the 8-track and dismissing cassettes and CDs as pure hogwash because the 8-track is the superior technology (in your mind) and will make a massive comeback (it won’t).
Case in point: I found an article recently that stated that pet ownership is potentially on the way out, as stated by Dr. Hal Herzog, Professor of Psychology at Western Carolina University, who added that he thinks “in the long haul…petkeeping might fall out of fashion; I think it is possible that robots will take their place, or maybe pet owning will be for small numbers of people[4].”
As an animal lover, the mom of two rescue pups, and a dedicated rescue advocate, I blanched at reading that. How could anyone say that we would stop having pets? As I look at my one rescue dog sleeping next to me, and the other one cuddling a soft toy as she sleeps, it’s unimaginable and something with which I vehemently disagree. But – I know that my role as a futurist is one that doesn’t care what I think. I capture what is going on in the world. I track how these trends ebb and flow. And I use my hatred for specific trends for good; i.e., I can use what I know about rescue to show what would happen if we eliminated pet ownership, and perhaps use that in a scenario to show why there need to be better laws for appropriate pet ownership and harsher punishments for animal abusers.
The biggest mistake I can make with this trend, however, is to pretend it doesn’t exist. I don’t like it, so if I don’t report it, it won’t happen, right? Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work well with those whims, and will continue its march forward, no matter how much we cling to our 8-tracks.
There will always be trends we don’t like in life, just like there are in fashion[5]. That doesn’t mean we should follow them blindly, but it also means that we can’t dismiss them out of hand. And sometimes, it’s good to address them with people you know they will impact. For example, I met this lovely woman at a race who had her legs amputated due to a disease, and we started talking about our racing history and when we prefer to run (morning or evening, summer or winter; you get the point). I asked her at one point about this trend I had read about, where people are amputating healthy limbs just to accommodate bionic limbs[6], simply because they want to be part robot and want to get ahead of the trend of humanity and robotics becoming one.
This lady just looked at me and said, “Are they stupid?”
I understand her point. As a runner, I wouldn’t want to voluntarily amputate my feet for bionic feet, no matter how much my real feet hurt after running a marathon. And could I see this becoming a real, growing trend? Yes and no. No from the sense of “I will NEVER want to do this unless my limbs are taken off due to an accident.” Yes from the “…people want the new thing.” And this potentially is a new-ish thing, one that has been recounted even in media[7], albeit in a somewhat pushed-to-the-limit scenario.
Then again, that’s exactly what we should do with a trend, especially ones that we don’t agree with: push it out to its absurdist extremes to see what could potentially happen. Perhaps there will be an event where we have pseudo-amputations and attach elements that mimic bionic limbs. Perhaps it will be a new form of expression, like tattoos and piercings. And perhaps it will just disappear as a flash in the pan.
So, my fellow futurists, embrace the hate. Embrace it, cherish it, and push it to its extremes. Because maybe you’ll grow to love it, especially when you turn it into a best-selling new dystopian series. Or an idea that Amazon will take seriously[8], like using your dead loved ones’ voices as your Alexa voice[9].
[1] Sometimes literally, especially if looking at cultural trends in other countries. Or even trying to understand Love Island.
[2] Depending on your team.
[3] Or to wine.
[4] https://getpocket.com/explore/item/should-we-stop-keeping-pets-why-more-and-more-ethicists-say-yes?utm_source=pocket-newtab
[5] I’m looking at you, everything in the 2000s.
[6] https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/when-is-it-okay-to-replace-human-limbs-with-technology/
[7] https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Strange_Beauty
[8] I know they study Black Mirror for ideas.
[9] https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1107079194/amazon-alexa-dead-relatives-voice
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