I’m spending this weekend in the mountains, in a pretty ski village which is mostly dead because the ski season hasn’t started yet.
Along with me in the house are three smart, highly educated, grown-ass women who spent a fair part of the weekend discussing and also watching a Netflix show called Dynasty.
Now I’m old enough to remember that Dynasty was a 1980s soap opera.
The Netflix version is a remake from 5 years ago. It’s glossy, cheesy, and oversexed. Here’s a bit of dialogue from the season 1 trailer, when a brawny black chauffeur picks up a white bombshell socialite from her private jet:
BBC: How was Denver?
WBS: I miss the heat.
BBC: Trust me, it wasn’t as hot without you here. Straight to the manor?
WBS: [smirks] I’m open to a detour.
Like I said, the women I’m with this weekend find no shame in watching TV shows like this.
That’s a change.
As James Altucher pointed out on a recent episode of his podcast, there was a time, not long after that initial Dynasty came out, when watching TV was considered shameful among smart, highly-educated, grown-ass people. Some quotes from that not-so-distant past:
“My kids will never watch TV”
“TV rots your brain and destroys your community”
“We would all be better off if television got worse, not better.”
But that’s all gone now. Among the people I know, there are few who don’t spend a good part of the week watching some TV — and feeling no shame about it. I bet it’s similar with the people around you.
Which begs the question, which things that we are so scared and horrified of today will make a shame-free comeback in a few years’ time?
James Altucher thinks it might be social media. Maybe we will still be heavily using social media in 20 years’ time, in spite of all the current hand-wringing about the IQ loss and attention-fracking and shallowness that Instagram and TikTok cause.
Whatever. James Altucher is a smart and highly educated guy, and his predictions are based on a lot of thinking and research. Too complicated.
Here’s a simpler, more general way to predict the future:
Don’t count on moral outrage or good intentions to create change. Only new technology — considered broadly — will change people’s behavior.
And speaking of new technology:
Have you heard of email? I’ve only recently found out about it and I’m very excited by the possibilities. So much so that I’ve started writing a daily email newsletter about copywriting, marketing, and influence. A few thousand people have signed up to get daily emails from me and they seem to be enjoying it very much. In case you’d like to join them, click here and follow the very non-technical instructions.