What is the Very Next New Thing?
As I've starting a search for the very next new thing, I been thinking about what this new thing should look like.
In just about every field I can think of, people are always coming up with something new.
There is new music, new fashions, new products, new services, new foods, new toys, new diets, new everything.
It's like new defines us as a culture.
But then certain new things, take off.
They become the very new thing that people have to have, like the Gnu Pets, the hamster-like creatures that rocked the toy world this year.
In the movie world, Avatar became hailed for its new breakthrough technology.
In music, there were breakthroughs by Susan Boyle, whose voice transformed a frumpy 47-year old Scottish "old-maid" into a reburn music star with a new look, and Adam Lambert, who brought a glam gay style to the stage.
And in fashion, things like UGG boots became the thing to have, even in the hot L.
A.
summer, people would wear them to show they were in style.
There's even a short section in Newsweek or Time or maybe it's People, where one writer categorizes pop trends as in, 5 minutes ago, and out and lists the rise and decline of the latest fashion or idea.
But who are the trend setters and decliners? I haven't even heard of half of the names, products, events, or styles listed.
Is there some age group, some demographic that's deciding what's in, out, and so 5 minutes ago? And is that something that I have to take in to consideration as I search for the most interesting, spectacular, and fabulous next new thing? Or has the media become the new arbiter of what should qualify as the most exciting of whatever's new? I'm not sure, but as I've been thinking about this search, I've been considering how to qualify "the very next new thing.
" Obviously it has to be something very new, something that might be considered a breakthrough.
But beyond that, it seems like this search for the very next new thing might consider things in different categories, maybe even award things in those categories, like Barbara Walter's special on the 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year does.
So what categories? Here are the key categories I came up with: Arts and Entertainment Fads and Fashions Science Computers and Technology Health and Medicine Personal Growth and Self-Improvement Lifestyles Business Products Services So I'll be looking at new developments in each of these areas and deciding what really has been a breakthrough that has made a difference in people's lives.
For example, a few decades ago, the Internet was just a way for scientists and other academics to share data with each other.
And then new technologies turned the Internet into an information superhighway that has changed almost everyone's life and connected us globally in ways that were never possible before.
So does anything have the power to change us fundamentally today? That's what I'll be looking for over the next months, trying to identify the beginnings of new changes that will transform us in ways we don't know about yet.
I've been even thinking about setting an organization or networking group to explore this with me.
Much like some of the happy groups are putting on events or meetings to bring together people who want to be happy, I thought I might create a Next New Thing Group to join me on this search.
At our meetings, people could present the next new thing they have discovered in any of these fields, and then everyone present could rate that new thing based on how new, important, and transformational it is.
Some of the people in the group might also find themselves inspired to create the next new thing in their own field.
In short, this might be a group to bring together inventors, artists, visionaries, entrepreneurs, creators, and transformational leaders of all types.
So what's new? What's the very next new thing? That's what I'll be asking as I continue this series of blogs and articles and begin going to new groups and events, and creating my own in the search for the new.
In just about every field I can think of, people are always coming up with something new.
There is new music, new fashions, new products, new services, new foods, new toys, new diets, new everything.
It's like new defines us as a culture.
But then certain new things, take off.
They become the very new thing that people have to have, like the Gnu Pets, the hamster-like creatures that rocked the toy world this year.
In the movie world, Avatar became hailed for its new breakthrough technology.
In music, there were breakthroughs by Susan Boyle, whose voice transformed a frumpy 47-year old Scottish "old-maid" into a reburn music star with a new look, and Adam Lambert, who brought a glam gay style to the stage.
And in fashion, things like UGG boots became the thing to have, even in the hot L.
A.
summer, people would wear them to show they were in style.
There's even a short section in Newsweek or Time or maybe it's People, where one writer categorizes pop trends as in, 5 minutes ago, and out and lists the rise and decline of the latest fashion or idea.
But who are the trend setters and decliners? I haven't even heard of half of the names, products, events, or styles listed.
Is there some age group, some demographic that's deciding what's in, out, and so 5 minutes ago? And is that something that I have to take in to consideration as I search for the most interesting, spectacular, and fabulous next new thing? Or has the media become the new arbiter of what should qualify as the most exciting of whatever's new? I'm not sure, but as I've been thinking about this search, I've been considering how to qualify "the very next new thing.
" Obviously it has to be something very new, something that might be considered a breakthrough.
But beyond that, it seems like this search for the very next new thing might consider things in different categories, maybe even award things in those categories, like Barbara Walter's special on the 10 Most Fascinating People of the Year does.
So what categories? Here are the key categories I came up with: Arts and Entertainment Fads and Fashions Science Computers and Technology Health and Medicine Personal Growth and Self-Improvement Lifestyles Business Products Services So I'll be looking at new developments in each of these areas and deciding what really has been a breakthrough that has made a difference in people's lives.
For example, a few decades ago, the Internet was just a way for scientists and other academics to share data with each other.
And then new technologies turned the Internet into an information superhighway that has changed almost everyone's life and connected us globally in ways that were never possible before.
So does anything have the power to change us fundamentally today? That's what I'll be looking for over the next months, trying to identify the beginnings of new changes that will transform us in ways we don't know about yet.
I've been even thinking about setting an organization or networking group to explore this with me.
Much like some of the happy groups are putting on events or meetings to bring together people who want to be happy, I thought I might create a Next New Thing Group to join me on this search.
At our meetings, people could present the next new thing they have discovered in any of these fields, and then everyone present could rate that new thing based on how new, important, and transformational it is.
Some of the people in the group might also find themselves inspired to create the next new thing in their own field.
In short, this might be a group to bring together inventors, artists, visionaries, entrepreneurs, creators, and transformational leaders of all types.
So what's new? What's the very next new thing? That's what I'll be asking as I continue this series of blogs and articles and begin going to new groups and events, and creating my own in the search for the new.
