Big Data, Megatrends and Meta Trends

We use the word megatrend so often today; it’s a trend all of its own, it has passed from neologism, to buzzword, to vernacular. I was however curious in my digging around in what I believe to be the most talked about megatrend today: Big Data, what the commonly understood definitions of mega- and meta-trends would be. I wrote about megatrends a few months back. 

I understand meta as a prefix to be referencing a higher hierarchy, or description of the word it’s affixed too (it also happens to be my sisters nick name – just in case you were wondering).  Meta-linguistics would be the science about linguistics rather than the science of linguistics. Metadata would be a definition or description of data.

Disrupt

So, you’ve read and heard about disruption “this” and “that” and have maybe, like me wondered, what has been disrupted and how exactly.  Apparently there is “the Law of Disruption” – much like Murphy’s Law (more on that later) – and it has to do with the dissemination of change being uneven, that is the ‘analog’ world is not keeping pace with changes in the ‘digital’ world.  Digital changes grow exponentially hence being disruptive to our more contemplative analog world we live in physically that grows incrementally.  A world were our elders do not necessarily understand computers and new technology, where the rest of us who are not born after 2000 sometimes wonder how many new things we will learn, adapt to and unlearn because they were a fad in an effort to keep up and stay relevant, both for our jobs and our children.  

Identity and the Other – Synopsis

Here the (current) Synopsis for my next film Identity and the Other:

 

How Swiss are Muslims living in Switzerland, how Swiss do they want to be and who decides if they are Swiss enough?

 

Identity and the Other explores the lives of several 2^nd generation, millennial, Muslim immigrants, which represent a section of a culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse Switzerland many Swiss feel uneasy about.

Megatrends

I came across megatrends repeatedly doing research for my next documentary Identity and the Other and decided to do a bit of further digging. I found different definitions for different countries and cultures, no surprise there. The following seemed the most comprehensive. 

 

Megatrends are defined as forces (i.e. trends) affecting all aspects of our lives over a long period of time. Factors are: