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2020s: The Aesthetic Age

Vinyl sells more than any other musical medium now – more than CDs, more that non-streaming digital. It should’ve stayed as an obscure hipster quirk, but now I see a lot of $50+ LPs in JB hi-Fi and I am on the verge of it myself.

We like owning art, it gives us pride.
And we like tactile, real world things.

I think the vinyl is the start of a major new trend.

Once everything is touchscreen, anything that has dials and buttons will have new appeal. Imagine programmable channel selectors on your TV frame. Imagine getting off the sofa to change channel!

The Elgato Stream Deck is a good example (pictured). Real buttons that are shortcuts to digital or online actions.

Watches with buttons are still very popular.

With labour laws on the verge of making food delivery much more expensive, walking to fetch your fast food will be back in vogue. Bicycles that are not electric, ditto – people will take pride in providing all the momentum. We might also start realising that self-propelled gives more control, less harm.

Bookstores are on the verge of opening again.

Climate change, wars, politics and poverty will make food security worse and self-sufficiency will become far more popular.

People will start making things again, maybe even clothes.

Published in Futurism