Bright Underground. Trendwolves European Youth Trend Report
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What will tomorrow bring? The eight trends in our European Youth Trend Report lift a corner of the veil, and offer a vividly colored, cheerful and staggering view. The future might be dark and unsure, but the underground is bright.
1. Crypto culture
CONQUERING THE ONLINE UNDERGROUND PLAYGROUND
As the awareness on privacy issues increases, anonymous surfing, chatting and browsing has become unprecedentedly popular. Young people are committed to keeping the Deep and Dark Web underground, far away from the watchful eyes of governments and corporations.
2. Lolology
THE IDEOLOGY OF LAUGHTER, FUN AND PLAY
In this day and age, young people are all about enjoying life. More so, for many young people today, having fun outweighs the desire to win. Pushing boundaries, humour and play gain ground as an outlet for self-expression
We wrote a blog about random Facebook events this summer, which were perfect examples of lolology
3. Intox/Detox
EXTREME DECADENCE ALTERNATED WITH EXTREME DISCIPLINE
We have entered the age of a ‘lust controlled culture’. With today’s increasingly blurring boundaries, experiences have become bigger and more extreme. In an attempt to counterbalance and minimize the collateral damage, episodes of binging are countervailed by periods of restraint.
4. New Modesty
SELF-IMAGERY REVISITED
Gradually but slowly, we begin to realise that we are not as unique as we have always thought. Young people are increasingly putting value on profound meaning, but also everything ordinary, unstyled and unmarketed is considered worthy.
5. Impulse acting
INTUITIVELY INNOVATING, WITH A FINGER ON THE PULSE
The younger generations are the quickest in identifying and seizing opportunities in today’s economy. Their intuition is better trained, so they know how to move in a society with diminishing structures and an unknown future. In their bold and driven hunt they find innovative solutions and drive things forward.
Read the full chapter for free following this link.
6. Mix Match
CREATIVE COLLAGE-ING OF CULTURAL ARTIFACTS
Local culture has become increasingly diversified, converting the Internet into one global village. In a playful way symbols, rituals, styles, traditions and religions that sometimes in their original form can severely clash, are now vigorously re-interpreted en combined.
Here's an interview we did with illustrator Eno Swinnen
7. Bad Style
AUDACIOUS AND REBELLIOUS ATTITUDES RULE
Dennis Duijnhouwer
In today’s survival society, it’s the toughest that prevail. The new generation is well aware that abiding to the rules isn’t beneficial when it comes to achieving goals. In result, the bad boys and girls are exceedingly reigning supreme, as they break with the status quo to create their own tenets.
8. Slowcial
TIME FOR SLOWING DOWN, HUMAN CONTACT AND MEANING
We live amidst continuous news flows. Yet real focus and real, offline contact or in-depth research is hard to achieve in a world of non-stop connectivity. Young people’s reaction to this is fairly facile though. In managing this endless influx of info, they take time to consciously slow down, interact with one another in real- time and to ponder on life.
