Individualism - still a top trend among youth

What trends are important for young people’s lives today? According to Kairos Future's expert network Futuretrackers individualism, post-materialism and tribalization are the three trends that are most certain and important. Increased individualism has been characterizing large parts of the world since the last century, but evidently this is a trend that still has a huge effect upon young people. Tribalization, that life-style based social groups are becoming increasingly common, is however a trend that has become much more important over the last years. In the same survey that Kairos Future conducted in collaboration with Futuretrackers in 2006, it was not among the top trends at all.

IMPORTANCE AND CERTAINTY GO TOGETHER

In the diagram below we have plotted the trends according to certainty and importance giving us a good overview of the results. The front line is clearly headed by individualism, post-materialism and tribalization. The congruence between certainty and importance seems to be quite high, i.e. the higher the certainty the higher the importance and vice versa, with no obvious outliers. Radicalization, that young people increasingly express their opinions through activism, is the trend perceived as least important and least certain.

 
Diagram. Certainty and importance of different trends among young people

WANT TO KNOW MORE?  

If you want to know more about Kairos Future's work on youth trends, please contact Ms. Elin Åström via e-mail or telephone +46 733 64 55 90. If you want to know more about Kairos Future's expert network Futuretrackers please click here.