Current Social Trends That Will Shape the Future

Over the last couple of decades, things have generally progressed in certain directions much faster than initially anticipated. Surely 20 years ago very few people expected that by the 2010s almost every single person on Earth will have a smartphone. Not that they would even know what smartphones are back then. Moreover, some of the global events that have taken place so far throughout the 2020s have the potential to leave long-term effects on society and the world as a whole. When we look at what’s been going on around us for the last few years there are some obvious trends developing. Therefore, here are some of the more noteworthy trends that will likely somewhat shape our future.

Work-Related Technology

We’ve all heard rumors (or just fears) of technology replacing the need for human workers in some fields. Like with truck driving or in supermarkets. There’s potential for technology to do some of the jobs in the very near future that people do nowadays. Furthermore, with how the pandemic has shifted a lot of people’s ideas of what a working space looks like, a trend of a shifting workplace is brewing. As such, technology has become more and more important when it comes to working. Zoom calls and late meetings from your living room may be a permanent thing of the future. Everyone has been aware for a while now as to just how important it is to be tech-savvy in the current workforce, but you can safely expect that need for workers who are up-to-date with the latest tech to only increase from here on out.

Dependency on Technology

Within the next decade, technology will likely advance at a higher rate than it did the past 100 years. This will clearly only make individuals more and more dependent on the latest phone, laptop, and whatever new invention comes out year after year. Again, this is an obvious trend that’s been developing for a while. However, if you’re paying slightly more attention to it you’ll see that life is only about to get more digitized. With smart houses now and self-driving cars soon enough nothing will ever look the same. The fact that already a good number of people have more online friends whom they’ve never met than in-person friends is merely a sign of what’s to come in relation to human connections. That may be either a good or a bad thing depending on who you are but nevertheless, the fact is that it’s real and it’s coming our way.

Social Awareness

When you look at human history and society even less than 100 years ago you’ll see that it wasn’t always the most accepting, and people weren’t necessarily open-minded. Now, throughout the western world, we can notice trends of people getting fired for showing signs of bigotry. People are now being held accountable for saying and doing things that previously may have been considered normal. With more and more social awareness spreading in the world, you can expect that in the future society will only grow to become generally more accepting and aware of social struggles certain groups of people face. Additionally, mental health awareness is another big and important trend that’s spreading. Especially with some of the current global events going on constantly, people are becoming aware of just how important it is to check in with yourself and seek professional help. We can only hope that this trend continues.

Education Will Reflect Reality

One of the biggest complaints everyone has in regards to education is that “it does not prepare you for the real world”. Whatever that may mean specifically when you look at how some things in regards to job seeking are changing it becomes clear that education will slightly shift as well. If more job opportunities are opening in technological fields, then perhaps education needs to reflect that. Taking into consideration just how little the way education is presented to kids has changed over the last century, there’s definitely a new trend going on in that field. Expect a much-needed new paradigm for education coming soon.

Evidently, it’s apparent that some future trends are already in their developing phase. You can notice and prepare for them if you know where to look. Be that as it may, when you look at how the newest generation has grown up from day one with a screen in their face, it’s safe to assume that the older generations have their work cut out for them.

Photo: Treecha/shutterstock

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