Microtrends Squared

“Microtrends” and the Bigger Picture

Microtrends drive the contemporary world. Rather than insisting on a single sweeping explanation for the forces that shape modern times, you can see distinct, smaller trends at work. These trends push and pull society in different ways, resulting in conflict. Big data, “hidden algorithms” and artificial intelligence shape an increasingly personalized world. Trends that started innocently, like cellphones communicating your location via GPS, become something darker as companies and governments collect data about you.

Social shifts produce new winners and losers. Senior citizens exercise political power far more effectively than millennials. Rural areas depopulate, but within the United States, they exercise disproportionate power. Nationalism has revived as a rejection of globalism. These factors contributed to President Donald Trump’s election, in that he speaks and fights for the “old economy” rather than the new digital world.

Shifting Personal Relationships

In one microtrend, more people are deciding not to marry. Those who do marry, ...