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Synopsis

In Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today’s Big Changes, Mark Penn shows that 75 of the most important trends in the world today are the smallest ones. Exploring everything from politics to religion, food to entertainment, Penn follows the numbers to uncover what's really popular, not what we think is popular.  Because while these trends are shaping the world, they’re relatively unseen – they’re under-the-radar forces that can involve as little as 1 percent of the population.

People have never been more sophisticated, more individualistic, or more knowledgeable about the choices they make in their daily lives. Yet it takes intensive, scientific study to find the logical patterns that underlie those choices. While helping you to refine your own trend-spotting skills, Penn pierces remarkably stubborn conventional thinking to find the counterintuitive trends that represent a portrait of society in the 21st century.

A groundbreaking book about the way people think and how they act, Microtrends explores the practical implications of these 75 trends for politics, business, and society itself.

Reviews

Critic Review:

'Illuminating... not merely fun to read but bursting with essential, and almost certainly profitable, information.'
The Sunday Telegraph

Interview

Interview with Mark J. Penn author of Microtrends

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Microtrends... are you part of a microtrend?

How your habits herald a change / Little choices mean big changes
Trend Spotting is what Mark J. Penn does best. In fact, he does it so well his track record includes advising (figures as prominent as) Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In his intriguing new book, Microtrends, the pollster explores 75 new trends emerging in human behaviour. Fuelled by the internet these micro trends have the potential to permanently alter society, not only in America but also in the rest of the world. Want to know about Commuter Couples? Curious about the X-Techs? Everyday in September you’ll be given the chance to get a sneak peek at Penn’s observations. With topics ranging from politics to love, sex and relationships, log on each day for a taste of the future.

Singled Out
Any of you girls still single? Ever wondered why? As we always suspected, the truth is it’s not your fault! There are just more women than men. Whilst more boys are born than girls providing what seems like a promising start, from the age of 18 it all starts to go downhill. Boys are more likely to die in puberty, then the Gay Factor kicks in (apparently there are more gay men than women), then you have the fact that there are more men than women in prison plus they die four years earlier too! Take heart though, there are bonuses. In 2005, single women became the second-largest group of home-buyers, just behind married couples and young women outnumber young men in highly paid fields like law, public relations and journalism. 

'Of course, the greatest beneficiaries of the women who are Singled Out are straight men who – frankly – have never had it so good.' 

Historians have well documented that a society with too many unattached men leads to war. Does a society with too many unattached women lead to peace? 

“Cougars”
Women Who Date Younger Men
Despite the difficulties of those Singled Out women, if you’re a bit older, successful and independent you could be the next to bag yourself a toy boy. Meet the Cougars. This new microtrend is not only obvious in Hollywood (51-year-old Geena Davis is married to a 35-year-old. Sixty-year-old Susan Sarandon dates 48-year-old Tim Robbins. Nearly 50-year-old Madonna’s husband, Guy Richie, is 39) but in the lives of us normal folk too. There are now at least half a dozen websites devoted to Cougar dating, complete with mugs and t-shirts.

‘Cougars mean that younger men are finally getting even with older men, who since the dawn of time have been poaching their available dating pool.’  

So keep your eyes peeled next time you’re walking down the street. Chances are that’s not a well-mannered son treating his mum to a spot of lunch, but a nervous bloke trying to impress his date. Mrs Robinson would be so proud.

Guess Who’s Coming to the Altar
Interracial Families
Of course everyone’s aware of the increase in adoptions of children from Africa by celebrities such as Madonna. But what about your neighbours, family and friends? Perhaps you’re married to a Spanish woman, or dating a black guy? Either way, interracial relationships are on the increase and this trend is shaping society. 

‘In 2000, for the first time, the U.S. census allowed Americans to check multiple boxes under “race” – creating 63 possible racial combinations that don’t even include “other”.’

‘But apart from needing our respect, inter-racial families of all sorts are owed our attention, because very quietly, they are eroding the assumptions that have guided race-related policies, customs, and habits for decades. For example, what does affirmative action mean, in an era when people’s ancestors were both victims and oppressors?

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
Sun-Haters
With the worst and wettest weather ever recorded it feels like summer has passed us by this year. But apparently there are some who will appreciate this.

For millennia humans have worshipped the sun, but there’s a new microtrend emerging in people who hate the sun. While most of us are rushing outside ripping our clothes off at the slightest glimpse of a sizzling sunbeam, the Sun-Haters are trying to protect us, lobbying for laws to govern sunscreen makers and spawning an industry for sun-safe clothing. Whilst sun-safe clothing is only worth $180 million pa at the moment it is set to grow, especially if anyone can figure out a way to make those ear flap attachments on sun hats look less like WWI bomber gear.

New York and New Jersey have just passed laws banning children under 14 from tanning in indoor salons. But soon that may seem very timid indeed. Expect the Sun-Haters to have us all going after indoor tanning salons like we once pursued Big Tobacco.

Blinkers
We all enjoy a lie-in at the weekend but perhaps that’s because our hectic lives mean we’re missing out on sleep during the week. Thanks to 24-hour-a-day electronics, and expectations, we're awake more than any generation in recorded history.

Blinkers on the rise will have tragic, if predictable, outcomes. A poll in 2005 registered 60% of participants admitting to driving drowsy in the previous year, and 37% said they’d nodded off behind the wheel. Drowsy driving is responsible for over 50,000 traffic accidents a year, including over 1500 fatalities, in the US alone. Less sleep also means less productivity. 1 in 5 people say sleepiness caused them to make recent errors at work. And because a lack of sleep triggers the hormones that boost hunger and appetite, sleeping too little can also raise your chances of getting fat.

‘Honestly, though, can you think of any activity besides sleep deprivation that functions both as a form of torture for enemy prisoners and as a badge of honor for super-strivers?’

So stop with the sleeping pills to get you to sleep and the Starbucks to get you through the day and just enjoy your beauty sleep.

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