Well, these are interesting times. While the Santa Fe paper has local residents concerned about offbeat things like herding deer in downtown at sunrise safely up a hill and how to be cat-like to win back a wife by giving her a bird carcass (seriously! this is so so Santa Fe), I think about manners, etiquette and being appropriate.
- Bling is Out: I've not been back to NYC in awhile but The End of the Gilded Age, the end of Conspicuous Consumption is an ABC piece (a very quick watch, go see) featuring the author of the book Richistan and gives a good insight into the end of the bling bling era. Shameful big (houses, breasts, behavior patterns) is out and the change is everywhere in New York. Future Trends: frugality, family, friends, and even...lower heels.
- Future Changes: I found much more important things to think about, like how life is changing. A very interesting article (pdf) on The Internet of Things- Future trends of the Internet: From the Internet of Data to the Internet of Things (Speech of Gérald Santucci January 28, 2009) was something I found fascinating and as we watch media die, and over-the-top living go out the window. How we interact with tech tools and data and our surroundings will change everything. It is interesting to contemplate:
The very concept of privacy will change as the Internet of Things develops. Citizens may decide that the information they consider private now – about their health, relationships, and habits – is just too mundane to worry about. Some experts even argue that "for most people, privacy will end in 2013, or a little beyond that." They believe that privacy as we know it will become impossible to attain. ...Issues for security, confidentiality, integrity, accountability, liability, availability in the Internet of Things will bring changes more ubiquitous in nature and to will alter people’s lives more radically than most existing information technologies. Citizens may rapidly become wary of the consequences the Internet of Things will have for their lives and therefore, they may reject the benefits it could bring to them.
- Populist Trend, Main Street Sets the Pace: While luxury is out, WalMart is still garnering the dollars. Look at our consumption patterns on how WalMart has spread with interesting data visualization. This is Main Street, not Wall Street. But both are changing.
Did you catch the article about the pediatrician who bemoans the children that aren't taught manners? I'm ready for a culture of manners to return. When the 21 Club in NYC drops its dress code requirement for ties at lunch and creates quite the ruckus, you wonder... are we forever changed, or will we return to proper social codes but maybe in a different way? When Jackie Kennedy took off hats, the rest of America followed, except good church-going African American women who use the semiotics of the hat to message place and to convey self-respect and significance. It is the way to dress up. We might fist-bump instead of handshake but I would think this is a better way to not get germy with everyone.
Maybe as we focus on things that really count, not material things that are here today and gone tomorrow, we will pay attention to graciousness and etiquette. Now where is that Emily Post and Amy Vanderbilt?
pink ring bling photo from my Lasting Love Series