A calendar year is an arbitrary deadline and communication is never-ending; nevertheless it’s helpful to take stock of the kind of year in communications we’ve just had and look ahead to what we can expect in 2011.  I see five trends that will each undergo shifts in 2011.

In 2011, we’ll rediscover hope

The economic black swan of 2008 both created and crystallized a current of anger in the public discourse that politicians were very quick to seize upon, reducing the level of communications, especially in the United States, to a new low of invective, recrimination, and sheer hostility.  The President was called a liar as he delivered the State of the Union address in January, and things went downhill from there. 

Just as quickly as this bubble of anger has blown up, it will pop as the economy improves.  It’s the nature of humans – and especially Americans – to be optimistic, and we will re-discover our optimism as our bank balances and job prospects improve.   In sum:  Anger will lose its currency, and a little frothy optimism will replace it. 

In 2011, we’ll stop reading and start watching

Of course this trend is as old as video games and – yes – television – but several trends had to converge before we could decisively predict the ascendance of the visual over the verbal.  And let’s put one myth to bed right now:  there is no evidence that there are three kinds of learners, visual, oral, and kinesthetic.  We’re all primarily visual learners.  And we all use all three kinds of learning.  But it has been too hard for most of us to make movies and send video love notes hitherto.  Now, with the widespread use of flip cams, phone cams, and cams everywhere else, there’s nothing stopping us from all becoming the visual learners we were meant to be. 

In 2011, we’ll fall in love again  -- with a politician

Along with our increasing hope, we’re going to find a new political figure that will show us the positive path we all crave, and we’ll make him or her our new media darling.  This will of course only become possible with the rise of the stock market, and retirees’ – and near-retirees’ – portfolios, but that’s coming in early Spring.  

What this suggests is that politicians who can get something done – and communicate what they have done effectively – will be the new media stars. 

In 2011, business will finally reject Mr. Spock and embrace Captain Kirk

Business people have struggled with the Mr. Spock theory of emotions for years – that emotions are messy and logic is a superior way of reasoning and communicating.  In 2011, finally, businesses will embrace the message in recent brain research – that emotion is actually what makes decision-making and memory possible, and begin to emote like Captain Kirk of Star Trek – who never found himself in a situation he couldn’t emote his way out of.  We’re going to see a tide of weeping and exultations engulf boardrooms and corporate spokespeople – and that’s a good thing, on the whole. 

In 2011, we’ll replace the long-winded with the nano-communication

So information-saturated and attention-deprived are we as a culture that Twitter will begin to seem endless in 2011.  The pressure will be on to reduce corporate communications – and indeed communications of all kinds – to haiku-like proportions.  Increasingly, the short form will triumph, whether it’s in corporate reports, tombstones, or even legal briefs.  Newspapers will become shorter than the web pages that have replaced them.  The Supreme Court will begin to curtail its opinions.  If you can’t say it fast, no one will listen in 2011.  I’d better stop there.  

Comments

[Nick Morgan]

Thanks, Tim -- but anger is great for comedians, isn't it? Funny as a toothache! I was going to say something else, but I forgot it....

[Tim Washer]

I sure hope you're right about the anger being related to the economy. and as an ADHD guy, I warmly welcome the short form in 2011.