Trendwatching.com's 08 Trends - Participation

The unfortunate thing about trends reports is that, if they are put together by folks with a materialist worldview, then they simply represent (1) what people are increasingly/decreasingly doing, and (2) how a company can use those dynamics for maximizing profits.

Obviously, there's going to be lots of trash in such reports, because "what people are increasingly doing" can often be summed up as "things they shouldn't."

That said, there can be some knowledge to be gleaned as well, amongst the occasional scandalous photo (yes, that's a warning, similar to the one I gave for Honeyshed). I'm only three pages into this Trendwatching.com report for 08, and it'll be a while before I've got time to get much further, but here is one thing which caught my attention:

Especially for younger (and younger-at-heart) consumers, participationis the new
consumption. For these creative beings, statuscomes from finding an appreciative
audience, which is much thesame way brands operate. No wonder that it's becoming
increasinglyimportant to hone one's creative skills. Status symbols, makeway for
STATUS SKILLS? What's going to be your participationstrategy for 2008? See also
trends #7 and 8 in this briefing: MYI MAKE IT YOURSELF and CROWD MINING.

Now, other areas of the report will bring this out more, evidently, but for the "Participative Sphere" to be listed among the six "Status Spheres", another of which is the Giving Sphere, then it seems like something to understand more thoroughly.