All customer-facing businesses track changes in consumer behaviour. In this day and age most of the changes are a knock-on effect of technology. For example: social media altered the path of e-commerce, but livestream social commerce has in turn reconfigured supply chains and last mile delivery goals. The trajectories of this broad spectrum of rapidly changing social contracts are altering our social construct, and in turn, businesses.
The life audit many people experienced during the pandemic is only now showing how pivotal those two years of lockdown really were. The starting point was recalibrating a work/life balance, but that served to kick-start a chain reaction in other areas of our lives.
Our desire for flexibility and remote working only scratched the surface of change. The traditional employer/employee contract was a transactional loyalty contract: a salary with benefits viewed primarily as financial security, in exchange for time and output, the terms of which were dictated by the company.
Today a “thrive contract” is emerging – an employment model more focused on purpose, equity and impact: a healthier experience in exchange for one’s commitment to the organisation. The companies sticking to a rigid transactional employment contract are discovering that they are not able to attract, or retain, the new talent needed for fast-changing business models.
Reframing the nuclear family
Gen Z introduced the world to “situationships” – a romantic relationship with no clarity on commitment, and therefore no label. “Situationships” dovetailed perfectly with a growing awareness of gender fluidity as well as sexual orientation. In a short space of time niche orientations – “demisexual”, “skoliosexual”, etc – seemed to come to the fore (I say “seemed to” only because they have always been there but unrecognised by a monosexual society).
These undefined relationships and the orientation nuances are surfacing at a time when global demographics are shifting. Many countries around the world, with the exception of those in Africa, are battling aging populations and declining birthrates. The problem is severe in countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea, where governments have tried monetary incentives for having a baby or time off from work to hopefully form romantic relationships.
But procreation’s headwinds are strong and varied. More women are receiving education and prefer to pursue a career before contemplating motherhood. Many couples now think it’s wrong to bring a child into a world that is spiralling out of control, politically, environmentally, and socially. Many others simply can’t afford to start a family. These sentiments propel a growing global movement of women opting for child-free lives. But there is a deeper sentiment brewing.
In America after the elections women started to embrace the 4B movement – a radical feminist movement that started in South Korea. The four Bs are references to Korean terms regarding marriage, childbirth, dating, and sexual relationships. Terms like “heteropessimism” were added to the mix – women were reconciling their heterosexual existence with a world they view as inherently misogynistic.
Other knock-on effects are starting to appear. Just after lockdown, family law in the UK and Ireland was amended to formally include the people you spent time with in a Covid support bubble – another permutation added to the fast-changing definition of the nuclear family. Today, friends are marrying friends, for tax benefits and home loan access, while the idea of communal living – specifically for retirees, or simply to pool resources – is becoming widely accepted. Less so are “throuples”, but we’ll get there.
The booming pet parenting economy
Running in tandem to declining birth rates – although in an opposite direction – is the exponential growth in the pet economy. Child-free does not necessary mean fur-child-free. Millennials in particular are opting for pet parenting instead of procreating and the transference of those nurturing instincts is creating huge business opportunities.
Google “barkitecture” and you’ll discover a world of pet-focused interior design services, while travelling in style with your pet now includes private airlines and luxury hotel services that include room service menus for dogs and “jet-lag therapy for puppies”.
Fortune Business Insights estimates that the global pet industry was already worth $246 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $427 billion by 2032.
Virtual love affairs and grief tech
Nuances in sexual orientation and reimagined nuclear families are one thing, but the definition of cybersex is also changing, creating a new, and very different, social contract.
The rise of AI chatbots and virtual avatars are creating deep emotional bonds between young people and their virtual companions. As phone addiction reduces in-person social interaction, and in turn emotional intelligence, young people are turning to virtual companions to curb loneliness. More and more teenagers are seeing chatbots as a means of therapy. One 15-year-old said that bots allow him “to rant without actually talking to people, and without the worry of being judged”. Flirting with a bot also removes all the social awkwardness of a real-life situation.
A slew of these apps (such as Soulmate, Paradot, Chai, Muah AI) appeared after one of the pioneers in the field – Replika – removed the “erotic roleplay” function from its app. Sexting with your AI lover is apparently essential for “fictosexuals”.
If a deep emotional bond can develop with an avatar, surely speaking to the departed would be visceral, and lucrative, too? Indeed, AI cloning of dead relatives to “bring them back to life” in short video animations is becoming commonplace.
But why stop there if technology can push it further?
A “ghostbot” created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT can simulate a realistic, real-time text message conversation with someone who has died, by feeding their archive of text messages into the software. As new social contracts go, this crosses the creepy line.
What’s really taboo?
Raising the dead to grow a grief tech economy may seem taboo, but what is often considered taboo becomes acceptable over time. Seeing what is and isn’t acceptable is a perfect gauge of just how fast, and far, social contracts evolve. Cannabis has become a respectable multibillion dollar medical and recreational economy, while executives are microdosing psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to boost creativity and enhance their leadership skills.
But to really see how social contracts have shifted, follow the money. The Economist article “Sin taxes are suffering from a shortage of sinners” outlined the decline of revenue from traditional sin taxes such as alcohol, cigarettes, and sugary soft drinks. A younger generation just doesn’t see the appeal of those indulgences. Instead, governments are focusing on new vices: e-cigarettes, marijuana and sports gambling. How times have changed.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Questioning our relationship to work and career only served to spark more existential questions. “Why does it have to be like this?”, “Is there another way of doing it? and “Who says different is wrong?” are just three questions that can be applied to all aspects of work, life and the pursuit of happiness.
- We are still in the process of applying these questions, and dealing with the answers, but the process of questioning the status quo is pushing society into new, unchartered waters.
- American author Charles Eisenstein wrote, “In a process of breakdown, we are repeatedly invited personally and collectively to step into a different story (e.g. a different worldview, a different identity, a different understanding of what’s real). These aren’t addressed by doing more cleverly what we’ve already been doing. Some fundamental shift is begging to happen.”
Dion Chang is the founder of Flux Trends. For more trends as business strategy, visit: www.fluxtrends.com
