It’s Christmas and time to celebrate in a way that’s appropriate to your beliefs, budget, and personal priorities. Christmas often brings to the fore anxiety associated with spending, presents, and the people dear to us, especially those with health or other vulnerabilities, but it’s also a time to look to the future with optimism and hope. That’s what the Badger household’s doing, especially as a new decade beckons. In fact, Badger’s household (who’ve all grown up with technology, entertainment and information at their fingertips) has already been speculating on what life will be like in 2029!
The Badger household has already agreed that our approach to Christmas has significantly changed over the last decade. There’s been a significant shift away from materialism and a much stronger emphasis on doing the right thing for those vulnerable people around us who, for whatever reason, need support. The household all agree that while giving and receiving gifts is good, it’s also silly and a waste of money if they quickly end up in the back of our cupboards! Interestingly, everyone no longer takes much notice of the marketing and advertising machinery that encourages us to spend on ‘gadgets’, and none of us believes this will change when new ‘must haves’ arrive over the next decade.
So, what will life be like at the end of the next decade? How will tech shape the future? What will really impact our lives? Predictions abound, as you’ll see here, here, here, here, and here. However, forecasting the future is a fool’s game, especially when 10 years after the 2008/9 global financial crisis it’s not really clear if lessons have been learned. So, has the Badger household converged on a view on life at the end of the next decade? No. However, it has agreed that ‘unexpected events’ will determine whether any current predictions are delivered!
The Badger household has also agreed that the word ‘sustainability’ will dominate our lives through the next decade. Why? Because demographic changes in the world’s population means the global population is getting older. Older people tend to focus on their ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’, and they know these are best met by a sustainable balance between wealth creation and the finite nature of the planet’s resources. ‘Sustainability’ will thus be a theme driven by aging ordinary people, and woe betide any politician that doesn’t listen!
So what’s your key word for the next decade? Why not debate this over the aftermath of a Christmas meal? It will at least remind you that old-fashioned sustainable communication has not been killed off by technology! Have a great Christmas, a prosperous 2020, and a fulfilling and sustainable next decade…
