Dating websites have changed the way couples meet. Now evidence is emerging that this change is influencing levels of interracial marriage and even the stability of marriage itself.
Continue reading… “First evidence that online dating is changing the nature of society”
Demographers, teachers and politicians will stop talking about the population pyramid and start referring to the population dome in 2015. The change in terminology will reflect a profound shift in the shape and structure of societies. This is a shift that has been going on for 50 years and is only half complete.
Continue reading… “The world reshaped in 2015: The end of the population pyramids”
At TED2014, the speakers and attendees were asked to riff off the conference’s theme (“The Next Chapter”) and tell them what might radically change society, life, technology and so on in the next 30 years. The answers may surprise you.
Continue reading… “26 ideas from the future that might surprise you”
Apple’s release of its multi-colored iMacs in 1998, made consumers realize they wanted beautiful computers, not ugly ones.
Ross Dawson, futurist, keynote speaker, and author, recently traveled to Provence in the hills above Nice to give the keynote at the annual EuroCIO conference. He used his framework for the future of the CIO to point to the macro drivers of change in technology and society, and how these are shaping the technology function in organizations, and in turn the role of the CIO.
Continue reading… “How rising expectations of beauty are shaping technology and society”
Forty-eight percent of Americans say the growing number of “people who are not religious” is bad for American society. But a similar share say either that this trend is good or that it does not make much difference, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.
Continue reading… “Almost half of U.S. adults say growth of nonreligious bad for American society”
Men love their single life and experience few of the traditional pressures that once encouraged them to marry.
They want kids, houses and sex. And they want women, too — but not in the form of wives. Not until they’re older. So says the latest study to probe the minds of America’s young men, aged 25 to 33. The study found 10 reasons men won’t commit — from the ease of finding sex partners to the desire to avoid financial risks of divorce.
Continue reading… “Top 10 Reasons Why Men Won’t Commit”
In 1974, Concert-goers push a stalled VW bus.
We can pity the baby boomer generation, blamed in their youth for every ill and excess of American society and now, in their dotage, for threatening to sink the economy and perhaps Western civilization itself.
Continue reading… “Why the baby boomer generation is the most hated”
Authorities are doing their best to clamp down on the internet.
Bill C30, the sweeping Canadian warrantless Internet surveillance bill, is back from the dead. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews (who declared that opposition to his bill was tantamount to support for pedophiles) has been working behind the scenes to resurrect his legislation, joining forces with the US government in the name of “perimeter security.” This proposed deal would expand the warrantless surveillance to US authorities, who could also access Canadians’ private information…
Stress is an unpleasant fact of life. We all experience it for various reasons, and we all try to come up with ways of coping with it—some with more success than others. So what exactly is stress doing to your mind (and body) when you’re staring down a deadline? And what can you do to power through it?
Continue reading… “What stress actually does to you and what you can do about it”
Our perspectives keep changing.
One aspect of the Egyptian uprising (among the others, most ongoing) that was overpowered by the wild acclamation of social media is something that has been quietly but powerfully changing societal norms over the last decade. It is simply the inclusion, on almost every mobile phone sold, of a digital camera. When 90% of the active population can, at any time, record an event they are witness to, and transmit it to the rest of the world instantly, many rules begin to change.
It’s not new, of course: “citizen journalism” has a long history before mobiles were prevalent, and the growing trend of “you report”-style news and things like Twitter streams in live reporting are as plain as the lens on your phone…
Continue reading… “Surveillant Society”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1jek4U7vbg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Short video clip on “Systems Thinking”
recorded at the Plan Fort Collins event on March 3, 2010
Futurist Thomas Frey: A recent article in iLibrarian explained it this way.
Online education seems set on its course to overtake traditional colleges within the next few decades, especially as our society becomes ever more dependent on the internet to get our work done. Thomas Frey, an expert on online education, compares our growing reliance on the education system to the reliance of ancient Romans on their numeric system. He indicates that much like the Romans, we have become increasingly reliant on our education system which is meant to pass on information from one generation to the next, hesitant to any change that may occur (explaining the rough transition to online education).
Continue reading… “Systems Thinking and the Future of Education”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Great communities are founded on great ideas. At the same time, our most admired communities become a magnet, attracting the brightest minds. The relational effect is clear: Bright minds make a community great, and great communities attract bright minds.
Continue reading… “City of the Future – Part One”
