Year 2070
When our phones are in a technology museum what will the world look like?
A friend of mine tried to explain mixtapes to her 6-year-old. This looping and complicated conversation accomplished little, except for shocking her son, who was unable to grasp a world without high-speed internet on music playing phones.
A single phone anchored to the wall for an entire family is just a concept that doesn’t seem plausible to a kid who watches movies on a touch screen.
We are a generation that has seen unprecedented changes in technology. It has changed the way people live and spend their time. If you told prepubescent me in 2003, that AIM would be obsolete by 2020, I would have laughed at you.
AIM has morphed into messaging apps that live in our pockets, and preteens no longer get in trouble for tying up the phone line.
At the speed daily culture has been changing we won’t recognize the world or the habits of its occupants 50 years from now.
When our phones are on display in a technology museum what will the world look like?
In 2070 children and young adults will likely be adjusted to living in a world affected by global warming. Palm trees will live north of the Mason-Dixon line, and animals will migrate north to survive.
Properties in northern states and countries will be coveted as the base temperature rises, and vacationers will flock to cooler weather.
Buying plots of land in Alaska and Maine is an investment, that will appreciate exponentially over the next 50 years. It could be your retirement nest egg or provide your children and grandchildren an escape from an unforgiving climate.
Those generations likely won’t play in sprinklers or swimming pools unless they are wealthy, thanks to water shortages, but let’s face it, kids have become increasingly attached to technology in the last few years and shifted away from summers spent outdoors.
Stories of pumping gasoline into cars will likely be as intriguing as phones that are attached to walls, as the world transitions to alternative ways to fuel.
When fuel tycoons fall from prosperous thrones; will providers of electricity pump up prices?
Is it time to look into creating your own energy, or will you pay premium prices in the future for solar, geothermal or wind-powered energy?
Colleges have begun phasing out textbooks already. I predict children will have a much more immersive learning experience. Virtual reality will allow teachers to guide children through live-action history, or geography lessons.
Learning about the rainforest?
Teachers will perform the primary function of passing out devices to walk through the greenery digitally.
Will teachers get paid even less when their job has been reduced to passing out devices, assigning and grading school work?
Encourage your children to work in fields that cannot be replaced by robots. What will those fields be? It is impossible to say with certainty but some professions are more vulnerable than others.
The food industry, the finance industry, and even the transportation industry are starting to take a hit now. Data processing, loan processing, and accounting will see less and less job availability over the next 50 years.
Some jobs are safer than others, especially those that cannot be broken down into routine tasks. Careers in engineering will be in high demand, and specializing in machine repairs before the robotic surge could put you in a great position.
While some professions are in danger of extinction, robots and the changing world will create new jobs that we don’t have a need for just yet.
In 2070 you will be telling your grandkids stories of the good old days, when you had to use your fingers to browse the internet, instead of your integrated intelligence device. When humans mowed lawns, and kids carried textbooks to school. You will tell stories of when you couldn’t vet your dates on apps or social media before you met them, and people made conversation with each other around the dinner table.
And they will be shocked at how foreign and dated it all sounds.
