I asked everyone on IG the other day, “what’s a name for this era we’re living in?”
Some of the answers:
“whatever the opposite of the golden era is”
“hell”
“the end of times”
“Anthropocene or Capitalocene”
“Postmodernity”
“late-stage capitalism”
“Disinformation Age”
“just feels like an ever-increasing age of noise”
Upon reflection, I think that we’re living in an “age of distrust.” ***History ppl - please comment any other times in history that could be analogous to what I describe below.
“Trust,” or the lack thereof, is an ever-present theme across every category of my life right now:
Romantically. With sex parties becoming more mainstream, digital platforms offering endless choices and opportunities to ogle, and with more people experimenting with non-monogamous relationships, trust and boundaries in relationships feel more tested than ever.
Sources. I obviously believe in science but it’s hard to ignore the ease with which you can find supporting research for two contradictory points of view with just a few google searches (e.g. “is coffee good for you?”).
Between neighbors. We’re politically polarized, and more often than not it seems people are only engaging from a place of, “do we share the same self-interest?” Instead of having reasonable conversations, we’re just shouting at each other over twitter.
Politically. I know that the world is controlled by only a handful of people, and all I can hope is that few are good men (because let’s be real, they’re men). On a step function smaller scale, I’m terrified for the future of America. Of all the things that give cause for concern, I really don’t trust the super-conservative judges that were pumped into all levels of our court system during Trump’s 4 years in power.
With tech platforms. We now live in a world where attention reigns supreme, where it’s more profitable to spread sensationalism, outrage, and divisiveness than to spread the truth. Then there are the changing algorithms, the ethical ambiguities that drive engagement, and the platforms that take clear advantage of the very users upon which their success was built.
With capitalism. I can’t shake this feeling that I’m constantly being sold to — and that’s because I am. Insane double-digit growth expectations are driving corporate strategy often to the detriment of the user experience, the product quality, or the employee. It’s become increasingly difficult to assess the role morality plays in a company’s decision-making, but it feels as though leadership is choosing profitability over people more than ever before.
As a result, people are looking toward other individual people that they know or trust to serve as credible sources of intelligence or opinion. With commerce, it makes sense that influencer marketing budgets are skyrocketing and that individuals with influence are largely contributing to the D2C space.
What other trends do we think will result in an effort to rebuild trust with partners, people, politics, and business?