Entering the Post-Trivial Age

Despite the rise and rise of Web 2.0 sites such as Twitter*, I feel that we are entering an era of new-seriousness, post-trivialism perhaps. Suddently the words on everyone’s lips are not related to consumption (usually conspicious) but to economic concepts such as interest rates, employment, and the money supply (using that fantastically opaque phrase ‘quanititve easing’). What does all this mean?

As recession deepens, which all seem to agree it will, we find ourselves obesessing less about the trivial things that have guided so many for the last 10 years (what will my friends think of my new mobile phone), and more about how we get or hang onto our jobs. Post-trivialism then is going to be defined by the need to be taken seriously, and to demonstrate that we have something valuable to offer in our jobs or in the jobs’ marketplace. Such seriousness will require less focus on social networks (we won’t be able to afford to socialise much) and more on professional networks, career advancement. Who knows, we might even start wearing ties again.

*For the record, I don’t believe that Twitter is without value, there is however a lot of fluff there to be navigated around.