It’s hard not to fall prey to feeling overwhelming nostalgia about the century we just left behind–and harder still to resist making grandiose predictions as we peer into the fuzzy future.
Having said that, a few themes are important influences in the reshaping of how we spend our time. They also challenge our notion of what is most valuable to each of us.
Belonging: The end of the ’90s was marked by a combination of fierce independence (the rise of the “free agent”) and a frenetic stock market (the unprecedented explosion of newly public, high tech “hot” stocks).
Both of these dramatic trends were built on the “I” in the value chain. In the case of free agents, value is measured only by a given individual’s ability to carve out a niche with speed and efficiency time and time again.
Likewise, the stock frenzy, particularly in the world of technology, was specifically about the “me” within the collective. Investors were betting on what they could gain in a given week, day or hour as they traded in their guess-timated predictions for phantom wealth.
What is missing from these trends is a sense of community, of the collective that is basic to human nature.
In the next century, the focus will turn back toward belonging. Free agents will begin to feel the isolation and drawbacks of independence and begin to look for community–perhaps in the shape and form of free agencies–groupings of people with complementary skill sets drawn to one another based on similar issues and concerns.
This is already the case as reflected by the existence of companies that represent free agents much the way agents represent authors and sports celebrities.
Other “belonging” indicators include the rebirth of guilds across North America, as well as the real estate trend toward buildings that attract and service like-minded business people.
Simplicity: Social and economic trends tend to bounce back. In reaction to the obsession with technology, there will be a movement to further simplify and streamline life.
Many people already are limiting the number of techno-toys they are willing to allow into their already overloaded worlds. But the desire to simplify will heighten.
On the technology side, while the ability for the Internet to provide convenience, ease and efficiency in buying everyday items will become more popular, consumers also will seek attention and personal contact for those items that are valuable, fun, interesting and enticing.
Destination retail locations incorporating shopping, dining and entertainment will continue to gain popularity as consumers demand experience as well as efficiency.
Give and take: There is a strong movement toward charitable activities in North America. The new (often young) millionaires, who are as surprised by their wealth as we are envious, are finding new ways to spend their money by putting it back into their communities.
Stories abound of neighborhoods in and around Seattle, for example, where the residents are busy setting up charitable foundations for all kinds of causes rather than purchasing their first Learjet.
Some will start new businesses and focus on creating motivating environments for their employees. Others will create a sense of community in the arts, education and sports.
Living and prospering in 2001 and beyond will come with new responsibilities. It will demand that we ask ourselves what is most valuable to us. Is it our time, money, families, individuality, ideas or dreams?
In the process, we may find it’s not that we can’t have it all–as we thought toward the end of the past century–but that we are going to have to make choices about concepts such as desire, belonging, give, take and community. That sounds like a responsibility to look forward to.
———-
Ellie Rubin is co-founder of The Bulldog Group Inc. E-mail your comments and questions for Rubin to tribjobs@tribune.com.
