Splicetoday

Pop Culture
Dec 31, 2014, 10:59AM

What to Expect in 2015

More of the same.

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1. There will be 12 months, 52 weeks, and some very rainy days in 2015.

2. Babies, lots and lots of babies, will be born. There will be joy.  

3. Many people, most of them adults, will die. There will be sadness.  

4. The "sharing" economy will combine with the "no sharing" economy to produce... a mostly broken economy, though we will be told things are getting better.

5. A football team will win the Super Bowl and Roger Goodell will wear a plastic smile.

6. Valentine's Day will arrive in February and boxes of chocolate will be meant to symbolize affection. There will be romance and there will be loneliness.

7. Prescription drugs, marijuana, alcohol, pornography, video games, shopping, and social media will continue to dominate too many of our lives. Television shows and sports will continue to win because we need narratives and we crave drama.

8. People will continue to seek currency through social media, building their "brands" and chasing clicks in ways that will often alienate thoughtful people. Many artists will continue to lose hope while a new generation seeks YouTube fame.

9. The older generation will continue to blame the younger generation while the younger generation will continue to resent the Millennials. Few people will blame themselves.

10. Younger people will continue to read more on mobile devices but will insist they still love books.

11. People will continue to expect everything they read or watch on the Internet to be free, while people who create things will slowly be replaced by algorithms.

12. We will continue to listen to podcasts more often and listen to people we actually know less often.

13. Racists will continue to blame the victims of racism.

14. The majority of wealthy people will keep insisting that everything is fine. For them, things generally will be.

15. There will be brutal moments that we can barely handle and transcendent moments that we lose ourselves in.

16. Against our own better judgment, we will be constantly surprised and intoxicated by the 24-hour news cycle.

17. Our memories of 2012, 2013 and even 2014 will become foggy and only somewhat reliable. We will forget most of our days.

18. Too many of us will continue to let fear dictate how we live our lives.

19. Many of us humans will keep searching and believing in the possibilities of progress.

—Follow Jonah Hall on Twitter: @darkoindex

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