Yeoh Siew Hoon takes a stab at predicting what 2010 will yield.
Over my lifetime, I have seen several fortune tellers. Some of them are pretty uncanny but most of them get it wrong when it comes to specific events.
For example, six years ago, I was told I’d fall madly in love with a tall, dark, handsome stranger and all I got was a dog. Believe me, I am not complaining.
So at the risk of being wrong, I share with you my predictions for 2010.
1. The Year of No Surprises
Nothing will surprise us anymore. We have reached a zone of “Comfortably Numb”. Things will happen. We will go OMG. And then we will move on.
2. The Year of Social Media Fatigue
If I need therapy, it will be for trying to keep up with my other life. I am exhausted trying to keep up with my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Google Wave – I haven’t waved for a long time. No worries, someone will figure out a way to cut out the noise for Me, Myself & I. Extreme personalisation is round the corner.
3. The Year of (More) Gadgets
The iSlate. The Microsoft Tablet. The Google phone. 3D television. All to die for, presumably. Over dinner one night, discussing British colonial history in China, a university student (we will forgive their black-and-white views) declared, “The British brought opium to sedate the Chinese and got them so addicted that they just accepted British rule.” Hail the new opium.
4. The Year of Mobile
Yes, it’s been said before but I was told in no uncertain terms by a Web expert just last night over pork knuckle, “If you aren’t on mobile this year, you’re dead.” Move or die.
5. The Year of Extremes
After the year that was, expect the world to become more polarised – between the haves and the have-nots, the left and the right. When I was in Europe last month, I was taken aback by the extreme views held by individuals I spoke to. When discussing Copenhagen and carbon emissions, a friend, who himself is fairly well-travelled and works in the medical profession, said, “We should ban longhaul travel for five years. It’d slow down our pace of life and give Earth a rest.” The scary thing, I actually thought about it.
6. The Year of ICE (Instant, Convenience, Ease)
We’re going to want everything to be instant, convenient and easy. I say this with great authority because I overheard two boys (roughly aged 5 and 6) who had obviously been tasked with the job of looking after their puppy beagle “if mummy got you a dog”.
Boy A: “I wonder if they have a dog that never poos?”
Boy B: “That’d be cool. It’d be fat though.”
After Buster did his business and Boy A had to pick it up, he said, “Oooh … I so want to kill something right now.”
• This article also appears in Asian Correspondent
