The past few weeks, sites and blogs have been pushing their trendsetting articles. I haven’t decided yet if it’s worth publishing one myself,  specially after reading Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swan, and realizing that trying to predict these sort of things is mostly an exercise in futility.

Nonetheless, as some of these “trends” do carry a reasonable amount strategic thought, a few highlights about trends:

Consumer

The obvious place to start is Trendwatching’s Half Dozen Trends for 2009.

On a recent discussion at work, it was interesting to realize that i guessed half of them right, before the report was published. Key trends: NicheTributes, Luxyoury, MapMania

Marketing and Media

Mark, Wendy, Dale, Eric and Ben at Talking Digital have been publishing their trends since October, with a plenty of creative juice to drink from. Key trends: Digital Growth, newspaper recession, Ad market competition, Privacy. On this latest trend, do check out also a interesting article by Pedro Rocha at Will It Brand, on the larger trend of Protection.

Design

The classic Pantone color forecast has to be mentioned. Key trends: Fuchsia Red, Salmon Rose, Lucite Green, Lavender.

Technology

I’m picking the recent Gartner study, Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009, with a lot of focus going, of course, to cloud computing and virtualization.

Gaming Trends

Jerome, at Advertising Pawn, as a compact presentation on games. For someone who doesn’t have the time to spend their time on the Xbox, the Wii or PS3, it’s a great shortut to connect to gaming culture. Key trends: Connectivity and participation.

Lifestyle

As I’m finishing this post on my lunch hour, it seems suitable that i’ll end with Epicurious Top 10 Food Trends for 2009.


Illustration © Epicurious.com. Key trends: Top-Rated, Value, Rustic.

On a post about trends, a closing reminder on the latest Google Zeitgeist, an annual report on the hottest worldwide search trends, where you can find the usual suspects (sarah palin, obama). And if you’re really trend freak, there’s always live services like Google Trends or Twitter trends.

“the last shall be first and the geek shall inherit the earth“

The above quote from one of the latest NYTimes editorials, reminds me of how digital natives have progressed. After the dot-com crash, we shifted the focus of the Internet from business to communities, and a new Millennial generation has arised.

Internet Attention Deficit Disorder has become a reality to the horde of nerds, geeks or MMORP fans, with the usual pundits horrified by the alienation of digital natives.
The fact is that “we” (if you read this blog, i’m soooo calling you a geek) created a different kind of individuals: connected, multi-taskers, highly skeptical and with a new sense of democracy built on top of online communities.

Image Credits: Geek And Poke

Geeks are no longer a weird tribe, but started to shape soiety with new behaviors. From education to environment, geek influence is undeniable. Take for example Nerdcore, a new musical genre but also a documentary about nerds, geeks, dorks and the way they interpret Hip Hop:

Not only geek-culture is becoming mainstream, but it also creates their own sub-cultures, with idiosyncrasies and references that spawn from Star Wars paraphernalia to Python riddles. The Internet has further amplified our cult of the ego, capitalized by social networks. On a neo-”Brand Named You” paradigm, one of the most searched keywords is our own name, so beautifully stated on the film “Google Me“.

Our identity is thus increasingly shaped by digital mediums, with many joining the geek horde. Today’s relationships are built over the keyboard, and when we finally meet the person IRL (In Real Life), she’s no longer a stranger as the emotional barriers have been demolished by a long series of emoticons.

Image Credits: Geek And Poke

A few years ago, someone told me i was spending too much time online, that i should get a real life. I promptly replied: “Online is also my real life. I have friends, a culture, a digital identity with many of the community bonds more truthful than in your-so-called-real life”. Thankfully i can now be proud of being a digital native. It’s not just the money pouring in the tech world, it’s also the sense that i became part of a community that allowed me the access new realms of information and cultures.

I’m proud of being a geek.