Those whom I refer to as the Phoenix Generation, coming of age over the next couple of decades, will show a marked difference in their consumption – and production – of media. They will be active prosumers of media content, not only consumers. They will actively engage with information, and seek to produce content if they feel that the media they are exposed to is not representing the truth for them. Such creative engagement will also impact their lifestyle choices.
Media & Lifestyle
The following are a number of key aspects that I foresee will mark the changes in media and lifestyle choices for those of the Phoenix Generation:
- Young minds will have had enough of a fear mongering, fear-sponsoring media. As instinctual intelligence is more evident, the false facades will drop and people will be less difficult to be side-lined into controlled distraction through entertainment trivia. The old programming that dominated the mainstream media in past decades offered only a crude and brutal programming that delighted in high-tension and stressful drama: in conflicts, murder, and sexual espionage. Such programming will cease to inspire a new younger generation.
- There will be a shift in media programming toward what elevates a person rather than what closes them down. This shift will be brought about by the increasing demand from people for more informative programming. The young minds and hearts of the Phoenix Generation will increasingly reject negative news and influences, and naturally shift away from such energies. The mainstream media will be forced – through viewing figures and thus advertizing revenue – to broadcast more inspiring and uplifting programs.
- The mainstream media will be impacted greatly by the rapid rise of more community media. The larger corporations will continue to merge and consolidate as they find it difficult to exist in a consumer environment that increasingly is people-centered, and whom rejects their style of broadcast. What is now termed the ‘alternative media’ will become more popular as people seek local stories that inspire and interest them. So not only will community media see a revival – thanks in large part to appropriate technology – but also self-produced content will become more the norm. Those of the Phoenix Generation will themselves be content producers – producing, creating, and distributing their own inspired content-driven media. The age of top-down corporate-controlled media will no longer be the dominant force.
- Young people will become their own journalists – creating, producing, and out-sourcing their services. Individuals will not only contribute stories and news items to the mainstream media, but will also create their own media platforms. Many new voices will become recognized and verified as credible sources of information. Young media activists from around the world will be able to supply information faster than mainstream journalists. Also, they will report from areas that mainstream media either cannot, or will not, go to – such as local violent conflict zones or selective communities. Peer-to-peer programming will become more popular as people prefer to produce and share their own news, stories, and events.
- Transparency will become the new watchword as mainstream media and governments make closer ties. As online content becomes increasingly monitored by governments, and doctored by media conglomerates, transparency and integrity will become a central issue. Younger generations of people will turn their back on attempts to control and manage the flow of information. The media landscape will never be the same again as the power of the image is taken from the hands of the few into the digital fingertips of the many.
- Changes in media attitudes will also reflect changes in lifestyle choices. People will seek out those experiences and impacts that are positive, and which bring harmony to life rather than disorder. Desirable lifestyle traits sought within these years will include reconciliation, harmony, coherence, non-judgment, forgiveness, conscious communication, love, understanding, transparency, honesty, integrity, and of course humor. There will be a greater general appreciation of the role and place of meditation within peoples’ lives. During these years more and more people will be shifting their priorities in life, seeking out meaning and well-being in place of career status and money. This will manifest over the years in many people leaving their traditional employment and seeking out new and alternative ways to support themselves that are more conducive to inner development and well-being.
- There will be a shift in habitation choices as young people seek for more nourishing environments to live in. This may result in many young people leaving crowded urban areas or joyless suburban neighborhoods. Alternatively, they will wish to rejuvenate their neighbourhoods into vibrant districts. This is likely to result in a revitalization of local communities, with an emphasis upon sustainability. The creative minds of the Phoenix Generation will strive to construct new models and ways of doing things that are more harmonious with environmental and ecological systems. New sustainable lifestyles will emerge rapidly as people seek well-being and personal meaning that is in balance with physical limits and resources. New communities, towns, villages, and regions will adjust to do things differently in alignment with the growing inner authority of the younger generations.
The Phoenix Generation & Emerging Technologies
The exponential rate of discovery in the coming decades of the 21st century will be extraordinary. Those of the Phoenix Generation will be born into a world where new technologies of communication and collaboration will enhance the connection with the world around them. Theirs will be a tech-assisted lifestyle like never before. They will grow up accustomed to interfacing with technology in ways we have yet to foresee. The new young minds of the Phoenix Generation will have an unprecedented relation to technology and its implications. The following gives a brief outline of the changes we are likely to see:
- Fears over privacy, data-collection, and a surveillance society will give way to technologies that enhance transparency, connection, and collaboration. The old paradigm use of technology, which played a role in neo-liberal globalization and authoritarian governance, will at first fight the rise of ungoverned social networks. These struggles may be dominant in the early stages until the new thinking is able to align technologies with models of transparency and open cooperation. Technologies will then be developed that will lay the framework for a planetary society based on an ethics of sharing and openness alongside the respect for privacy. Technologies of communication and connection will continue to foster a sense of togetherness amongst people worldwide. The open-source culture will become dominant among the younger generation as they collaborate to develop and share technological innovation and progress.
- The online ‘cloud space’ will become the dominant domain for the storage, transmission, and interaction of information. This will further add to the sense of moving through a ‘seamless’ environment where technologies will increasingly be embedded into our everyday world. This will nurture the sense of living in a ‘quantum’ era where instant connectivity and sharing will become second-nature to the younger minds. It will become increasingly evident that our human technologies external to us are only manifesting a reality that already exists within
- Simultaneous and instant communication across space and time will nurture within the Phoenix Generation a sense of living within a planetary society. They will feel in constant contact with like-minded people across the world. This physical connectivity will help to stimulate and catalyze collective empathy as people will feel an innate sense of being energetically connected to others. The instinctual intelligence within the younger generations especially will be shared around the world almost instantly. This fostering of collaboration will lead to an acceleration of inventions and new discoveries.
- Quantum computing will be a main driver in the development of a new generation of technologies. This will emerge alongside the new sciences providing quantifiable evidence, as well as the applied understanding, of quantum energy (that is, the scientific ability to see and measure quantum energy). This will pave the way for a re-write of human scientific knowledge. Quantum computing and quantum science will work to form the foundations of an era that at its heart will radically change the way human beings communicate and interact with their environs and the living universe. It is likely that during this time a form of quantum communication will be developed that will allow humanity to attempt contact with other intelligences in the galaxy. This physical technology will exist alongside our ‘internal technologies’ that will also be opening up to greater forms of contact (including telepathic). It will be evident during these later years of scientific discovery that humanity is not alone within the cosmos. The next evolution of quantum technologies will be the breakthrough we have been waiting for in our bid to make verifiable contact with other intelligences in the universe.
- The Phoenix Generation will also be part of a new generation of biotechnology. The old model thinking of biotechnology was focused on modifying the function and behavior of microbes and living organisms to improve performance. This ranged from enhancing the human body – recombinant gene technologies and immunology therapies – to bioengineering. The future of technology, however, will not be centered around upgrading current capacities but in their cross-convergence. The whole plethora of emerging technologies – nano/bio-technology; synthetic and quantum biology, quantum computing, etc – will increasingly merge so that the very definition of ‘what is life?’ will be questioned. The new era of technological innovation and progress will be the beginning of bringing technology ‘alive’. As DNA becomes increasingly merged into computing and synthetic biology, we will witness the early stages of a new bio-tech creation phase that will mark the birth of a new era in living technology. After this time the chief feature of modern technologies of human civilization will be the fact that they will be a part of the Earth’s living eco-system
It will be difficult to underestimate the role and potential of technology in the years ahead. Not only will technological development be a central hallmark of the era of the Phoenix Generation – it will also define the future evolution of humanity.
