Year endings and decade endings have people looking backward and forward at the same time. There’s something arbitrary about our calendars. And yet, we all use them and they shape the way we live our lives and think about what’s gone on and what’s yet to happen. So, I’ll join the queue of prognosticators looking forward to the 2020s.
So, what will really happen?
We will continue to be obsessed with celebrities, people who are famous for being famous. They will be beautiful and talented and we will gobble up their successes and their scandals, hungry for every detail of their sordid and sublime lives. In the meantime, we’ll miss out on stories about truly amazing people.
Speaking of them, we’ll lose a bunch of amazing people. My Dad will be turning 94 in a few months and won’t survive this new decade. And as I survey the landscape of truly amazing people, I can quickly come up with a list of others whom I doubt will see 2030: Wendell Berry, Frederick Buechner, James M. Houston, J.I. Packer, John M. Perkins, Gordon Fee. OK, I’m stopping. Just writing those names has me feeling down and I only just started with a few that came to mind immediately. The world has been graced by many truly gifted and generous souls and we will miss them all when their eras end. But we will hear more about celebrity deaths, which is OK since every life lived deserves recognition. I just wish these others would get a bit more.
If there’s a word that describes our age, it’s discontent. And nothing drives change more than discontent. When people are unhappy with their lives, they look for something to come in and save them. And so we will continue to push for more and more change in just about every area of our lives.
We’ve just witnessed the Sexual Revolution 2.0 and it’s not done yet, since polyamory isn’t yet mainstream and polygamy laws are still on the books. But more sexual ethic changes are coming.
The Smartphone Revolution has invaded every home with devastating mental health consequences. Thankfully, there has been a new attentiveness to mental health problems. But no one has the guts to deal with the cause. As bathing in Agent Orange is to causing cancer, exposure to smartphones and social media is to mental health degradation. And though there will be people who try to push back against it, we all are so addicted to our phones that the integration of them into our lives will only continue to increase.
The loneliness epidemic will continue to increase. In 2017, roughly 61% of adults in the U.S. lived without a marriage or romantic partner. This is an ever-increasing number. A third of Americans live by themselves. Loneliness is beyond epidemic. It’s everywhere. And with the rise of screen time, people have more “friends” online than they do in the real world. We get fewer hugs and handshakes even though we’re posting more. The problem with virtual friends is that they’re virtual. None of them is ever “there” for you. This makes churches and jobs (that aren’t done from home) and workout buddies and so on that much more important. I foresee a rise in alternative forms of community connections. But this rise will not meet the rising tide of loneliness.
Political anxiety levels will continue to rise as well. In our overly connected world, where scandal and online moaning about politics is rampant, there is just too much unsettling input for us to deal with. Not just during this election year but throughout the entire decade, there will be plenty of name-calling and fear-mongering to fill the front pages of newspapers and the Twitter feeds of politics-aholics. Ironically, almost none of what will drive their anger and anxiety will turn out to be that important, since most of the real world-shaping, world-shaking stuff is not on the front page.
Electric cars will become mainstream as will driverless cars. Together, they will change the way we experience getting from Point A to Point B. While I would be glad to give up owning a car at all and relying on a fleet of iPhone activated driverless cars that pick me up and drop me off for a fee, I don’t think we’ll quite be ready for that innovation during this decade, but I’m holding out for the next decade. I’m hoping it’s sooner, because I’d prefer to not buy another car.
Gun laws will finally be enacted after a particularly terrible school shooting. But sadly, school shooters will be replaced by school bombers since many shooters also play around with explosives. The gun laws will be needed, but the soul sickness that leads to the mass shootings won’t be dealt with by those laws. The anger and despair and mental illness that fuels them is only increasing.
The tribalizing of the United States will continue. This will be not just because of regionalism but because of the ease of finding like-minded people in online groups and “news” sources. What it means to be American will become more and more difficult to define.
A third party candidate will finally make a significant splash in a presidential election, using new media and old discontent with the failed two-party system.
Amid lots of forgettably boring music, there will be some absolutely brilliant music made. I can’t wait to listen to some of my favorite music ever — which hasn’t been recorded yet. The human ability to make beauty will not go away, even as it’s surrounded by dreck. The making of art and movies and books and theater and song will never be quenched and we are on the verge of experiencing so much that is true and good and beautiful.
The experience economy will continue to grow. Goods and services have been the backbone of the economy. But splintering off from the services economy is the experience economy — video games, movies, beers, sports, direct-to-streaming shows, podcasts, audiobooks, outdoor adventures, and so on. There are more people than ever hiking and biking, drinking whisky and smoking pot, playing club sports and binge-watching shows they don’t even like. Where previous generations worked to get the things they needed, emerging generations work to get the experiences they crave. As long as the economy as a whole can support this, the experience economy will continue to grow rapidly.
The church will survive. Christianity is getting a lot of bad press in the U.S. these days. Mainline denominations have been tanking for decades and that won’t stop. Evangelicals have tied themselves to Donald Trump so closely that their witness to Trump’s foes may never recover. Confusion over a theology of sexuality has some looking like haters and others looking like sell-outs. The PR picture looks bad. But the Holy Spirit hasn’t abandoned the church and will continue to use even a limping church to bring the kingdom of God to bear on the world.
Personally, I’ll watch all four of my kids as 20-somethings finish their schooling and launch into their careers. I’m pretty excited to see what that’ll look like. They’ll locate somewhere unexpected (I hope it’ll be in the Pacific Northwest) and they’ll go through some relational joys and pains (that I’ll have to watch but won’t have much say in other than in prayer). And maybe there will be some grandkids coming out of those relationships. This may induce me to want to move closer to them.
I will do more writing. My first book is coming out in just a few weeks. And I’ve been working on several other book projects. I hope they’ll also be published.
My wife and I will celebrate anniversaries number 26-35, most of them as empty nesters. And I’m looking forward to enjoying more time and longer conversations with her.
After doing really well physically my whole life, my body will start to betray me. My hair has been gone for a while now, but my health will deteriorate and I will not like it.
I our youth-obsessed culture, I will be listened to less. I’m not a Boomer, but the “OK, Boomer” reply to older generations by younger ones points to this dismissiveness. And if I have some physical setbacks, I will slowly become more marginalized. I hope to stay engaged and push back against the trend, but I know it’s coming. My time is passing.
I hope that being listened to less will mean that I will listen more. Listen to those younger than me. Listen to those older than me. Listen to God. If I do that, I will be happy (mostly!) with being listened to less.