Exploring Global Trends to Cope with Chaos

Exploring Global Trends to Cope with Chaos

The world has barely recovered from COVID-19 when new challenges have emerged: political instability, wars, economic uncertainty, and environmental crises. It’s a multifaceted crisis, forcing people to seek balance between anxiety and optimism to navigate these challenges. Let’s examine the trends that have emerged in the past 1-2 years in response to the chaos of our current era.

Seeking New Definitions to Understand an Incomprehensible World From VUCA to BANI

For decades, the world has been familiar with VUCA, an acronym describing a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world. Coined by American economists and initially used by the U.S. military to define Cold War situations, it later spread to other sectors, especially after 9/11, with many global organizations adopting it as a framework to prepare for change.

In the post-COVID-19 era, as the world became turbulent in all dimensions, a new acronym emerged: BANI, standing for Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible. Introduced by an American anthropologist and futurist to complement VUCA, BANI doesn’t just describe world situations but also our perceptions towards them, reminding us to be vigilant in assessing crises and preparing for future challenges.

PolyCrisis: Multifaceted Crises

Another buzzword in the past 1-2 years is “Polycrisis,” referring to multiple, interconnected crises. Highlighted in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Reports, it indicates that the world is facing several major crises simultaneously. For Thailand, the report identifies risks such as economic downturn, air, water, and soil pollution, labor shortages, household debt, inequality, and extreme weather conditions.

Gen AI as a Lifeline

Amid global uncertainty, Generative AI has emerged as a lifeline to help cope with challenges that exceed human capacity and control. Over the past 2-3 years, we’ve seen AI play a role in various dimensions, from automation to creating all forms of content – images, audio, video – extracting deep insights, and even acting as human proxies and enhancing human capabilities. It has reached a level where it can help revisit the past, make decisions in the present, and predict the future. This has sparked numerous debates about the utilization of AI.

Research by Ipsos indicates that people worldwide remain both excited and concerned about AI, with diverse opinions on various issues. These include whether AI will assist or replace human jobs, whether AI will generate misinformation and disinformation, the reliability of AI, and whether AI will enhance or devalue artists’ creativity.

However, whether AI becomes a friend or foe, whether it helps solve problems or enhances human capabilities, ultimately depends on how humans choose to use it.

Skill Building as a Survival Strategy

As AI remains a topic of debate, humans must simultaneously enhance their own skills. In this era, we frequently hear terms like Upskill, Reskill, Newskill, and Future skills, along with Green Skills (knowledge and awareness about environment and sustainability). Crucially, Cross-skills or interdisciplinary integration is vital, as expertise in a single area is no longer sufficient for survival in this age.

It’s not just teenagers and adults who need to accumulate skills. Children are also beginning to cultivate diverse learning skills and understand their interconnections. For instance, STEM education, integrating Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, is becoming widespread in many schools. This aims to instill essential skills for navigating an increasingly complex future world.

Tragic Optimism: A Rational Way to Heal the Mind

While there was previously a trend of Toxic Positivity – forbidding oneself from negative thoughts to the point of unrealistic optimism – research over the past year has found that what helps people become resilient and manage stress amid severe problems is Tragic Optimism. This involves positive thinking while accepting reality, acknowledging problems and negative emotions, then rising to face them.

Additionally, #HopeCore, a new trend on TikTok in the past 1-2 years, focuses on positive videos, often editing scenes from movies and adding healing messages to inspire hope and draw people away from surrounding negativity. In many countries, these #Hopecore contents have been found to help people overcome depression.

Consequently, surveys in various countries by Ipsos Global Advisor Predictions 2024 show that in the past 1-2 years, people tend to have a more optimistic outlook. Despite concerns about uncertain circumstances, they maintain hope, especially for their own lives. They seek products and services that heal the mind and encourage positive thinking. Moreover, they expect companies and brands to contribute to making the world more livable, promoting health and well-being, and presenting a hopeful future.

Joyconomy

The trend of balanced optimism links to finding a sweet spot for living happily. The Future 100 by VML Intelligence 2023 trend study found that people are especially seeking joy, happiness, and humor during this period. This is evident in online contents focusing on feel-good materials, funny clips, products with bright and colorful packaging designs, and the popularity of Art Toys. The appeal of cute characters and the excitement of random box surprises indicate a search for small, tangible mood boosters that can divert attention from stress.

Radical Reconnection

As a consequence of the COVID situation that left people feeling lonely and isolated, there is a yearning to be part of larger groups. Research shows that encountering new, diverse groups of people helps fulfill their feelings.

In recent years, we’ve seen activities and festivals attempting to act as intermediaries, attracting diverse groups of people to meet and share experiences. This is beneficial not only for individual mental health but also has broader social and economic impacts. Certainly, facing the challenges of today’s world requires collective actions to generate enough momentum to create large-scale impact.

From current global trends, we can see that people, organizations, and cities are trying to learn, adapt, and creatively find ways to deal with an uncertain world. The core focus is on choosing to stay positive+ and creating hope that everyone can help make this world better.

This year, we expect to see many new design trends and innovations created to address people’s needs and tackle crises.

Come explore new trends that will show how creative and design work can bring positive change to the world at the Bangkok Design Week 2025, under the theme ‘Design Up+Rising: Facing Challenges with a Positive Twist’, February 8-23, 2025.

Reference:

https://stephangrabmeier.de/bani-versus-vuca/#infographic

https://techsauce.co/sustainable-focus/the-global-risks-report-2024-from-world-economic-forum

https://www.marketingoops.com/reports/world-economic-forum-2024-lesson/

https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2024-06/Ipsos-AI-Monitor-2024-key-findings.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/tragic-optimism-opposite-toxic-positivity/619786/

https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/24/a-pessimistic-world-need-hopecore-save-us-doomscrolling-20496012/

https://www.ipsos.com/en-th/ipsos-global-predictions-2024

https://www.vml.com/insight/the-future-100-2024

https://article.tcdc.or.th//uploads/file/ebook/2566/11/desktop_th/EbookFile_34204_1699259829.pdf