LET'S TALK

Predictions for '18 not easy to nail

We're finally at the end of 2017, which felt more like a strength-sapping, runaway roller-coaster eon than a single year. Usually at this time, magazine pages and cyberspace are rife not only with looks back, but looks forward. This year's end is no exception.

What's going to happen in 2018? Will there be war with North Korea? Will millennials begin to find real jobs at last? Will the Real Housewives of Little Rock hit the TV schedule?

We beat a few cyberbushes, and offer this commentary on some of the most high profile predictions.

• "One-size-fits-all products," according to Popsugar.com's take on Facebook IQ's yearly Topics & Trends Report. Because we're all so overwhelmed by having to choose, there will arise "an entirely new breed of products that are made by companies that focus on one product (and sometimes, only one model)." That makes things simpler, and since it's just one product, that thing will be of better quality. Therefore, people are likely to buy more than one of it and be loyal to it. Be nice if our jobs went back to that. Remember when we only had to do one thing well, rather than take on a gaggle of duties and hope our multitasking still results in good stuff?

• Subscriptions will be hot. "Customizing subscription boxes enables us to get more of what we like, more often," according to Facebook via Popsugar. "... The 'delight' in seeing a box of something you know you'll like, but still be surprised by, is a massive, massive bonus." Ahem, we had this concept yeeears ago. It was called "record club" -- with all the low-cost ease of signing up and all the complications tacked on to quitting -- "I hereby agree to buy X number of criminally overpriced records/CDs over the next X number of years." At least with the record club we weren't on the hook for something every month. And, back in the day, we didn't have to fork over credit/debit card information. Don't get me started, by the way, on those "we'll charge you every month unless you elect to skip the month" VIP clubs, two of which I let myself get sucked into by the lure of a rock-bottom price for the "first item."

• People will seek wellness by ways other than pill-popping. "Instead of taking pills or prescriptions, more people than ever are 'finding alternative ways to feel better,' and that's only expected to increase in 2018," Popsugar tells us, again referencing Facebook. Well, duh. People will have to do this for obvious reasons: Cost. Also, we've all become increasingly alarmed by commercials that spend 10 seconds touting the one thing a pill is supposed to help with, then the next nine minutes rattling off negative side effects.

• Smart-home products you can order around. "Rapid adoption of voice as a human interface moves worldwide and mainstream as buyers shift from early adopters to consumers that demand and expect voice on everything from home appliances to personal digital assistants," says Rick Bergman of technology company Synaptics, quoted in a piece at Inc.com. Fine. Let's see a voice-activated control-panel thingy that works when we tell it to "fix my love life," "increase my income," "make me thin," "cover my bald spot" or simply "Get me a beer, honey."

• Amazon, Amazon, Amazon! The online retail giant will continue to make itself bigger, possibly buying up other stores, predicts a Fortune.com prophecy. I agree, and confess to being an Amazon junkie, even as I mourn the recent losses of face-to-face store chains. The company is a go-to source for affordable evening wear, costumes and themed attire in hard-to-find sizes and has effectively sucked me into a fascination with steampunk fashions and rockabilly/swing style dresses. Yeppers, Soylent green is ... Amazon.

• Ownership will decrease. "The rise of the subscription economy and the 'as-a-service' business model is changing the way consumers interact with the world," Rupert Hunt of SpareRoom, a roommate-matching site in the United Kingdom, says in the Inc.com compilation. "With the first of Generation Z hitting the workforce in 2018, we're going to see the start of a whole generation which simply haven't grown up with that expectation of ownership, and are far less emotionally wedded to it." So basically the world is going to turn into one big, 21st-century hippie encampment ... complete with access to medical marijuana!

So to put it in TV show/movie terms, 2018 will be The Jetsons somehow meets Agoraphobia, with American Commune thrown in.

Predicting that you'll want to send email to:

[email protected]

Style on 12/24/2017

Upcoming Events