The Cost of a College Education
I just looked up how much my alma mater costs in tuition. Fordham University, the 56th best college in the country, is now $44,000 a year. That's a 6% annual increase since 1997 when I started and it was $16,000 a year. Take that forward to when my future kid might be going to school and you're talking $141,000 a year tuition.
What in the world could college possibly do for you to justify over half a million dollars in cost. There's no way anyone will be able to economically justify that cost. Hell, it would be cheaper just to hire private tutors in every subject and pay for the kid to live in a cheap apartment somewhere. There's no way the college cost bubble won't implode.
Obesity
Diabetes rates, especially among kids, are off the charts and at some point, we're going to have to get serious about eating real food and exercising. You'll see more and more companies like Tinkergarten that motivate kids and parents to get out of the house and out from behind the screen. Maybe we'll figure out the ice bucket challege for heart disease, but if we don't turn our attention from long tail diseases that affect 30,000 people annually, a dozen potential ISIS trained Americans living somewhere in the US and the infintissimally small threat of child kidnapping, we'll figure out how to address the #1 cost burden on our healthcare system and actual killer of humans.
Mobile Distraction
Look around the next time you go into a restaurant. Both adults and kids are face down in their phones--swiping, liking, texting, etc. Up to a quarter of auto crashes involve cell phones these days. It's even causing marital difficulties as partners are complaining that their spouses just aren't present in the small amount of personal time they have together. We're soon going to realize that we don't need every single notification at every single moment and the phones will get put away in favor of devices like Ringly that screen the world and filter notifications to right time/right place.
Cable Television
The idea of a channel that you pay for over and above just a data pipe is definitely going to go the way of the printed local newspaper. When I can download any show, why am I paying for the channel that carries the show?
The Release Cycle of Content
It's already happening. Look at House of Cards--the full season gets released all in one day. Soon, someone is going to enable me to pay $50 to watch Guardians of the Galaxy in my house the day it gets released. Companies like Drip create a direct relationship between creators and content where you could send something to your fans every week instead of going through traditional channels to create and launch an album.
The Job
One day, we'll mostly be freelancers, floating from project to project--and the idea that you only do one thing, working for a company will be the exception rather than the rule.
Personal Lives
One day, no one is going to give a crap what you do on your own time. You'll elect a single, atheist President or someone in an open relationship and it just won't matter to anyone. The idea that we cared that anyone did anything that isn't any worse than stuff we've done will be a moot point.