We’re Headed Towards a Future Ruled by Self-Expression

Summary

The article discusses a future where self-expression and creativity are central to the economy, facilitated by technological advancements that automate traditional jobs, leading to a rise in content creation roles and the need for continuous innovation.

Abstract

The text predicts a shift in the job market towards a future dominated by self-expression, where technology enables individuals to leverage their creative talents to earn a living. The author notes that while many traditional jobs will become obsolete due to automation and software, new opportunities in programming, content creation, and other creative fields will emerge. The rise of content creators, such as vloggers, video editors, and social media influencers, is cited as evidence of this trend. The article suggests that as technology reduces our workload, people will have more free time to focus on generating income and pursuing passions, although the cost of living may require them to work more to maintain their lifestyle. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this shift by normalizing remote work and allowing people to engage in self-expression without geographical constraints. The author also speculates that advancements in technology, such as 3D printing of food, could lead to further lifestyle changes, reducing the need for certain activities and services. The article concludes by emphasizing that creativity will be the primary asset that distinguishes humans from artificial intelligence, leading to an increase in creative jobs and a greater reliance on money to sustain the emerging lifestyle.

Opinions

The author believes that the future of work will be heavily influenced by creativity and content creation, as technology automates many traditional jobs.
There is an opinion that the loss of old jobs is a natural progression, making way for new roles that did not exist before, such as social media managers and Instagram models.
The article posits that despite having more free time due to technological advancements, people will work more to afford the lifestyle that these technologies enable.
The author suggests that remote work trends, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, are leading to a global talent pool where skilled workers from third-world countries can be hired without relocating.
The text expresses the view that the next generation will be perceived as lazy due to increased automation, and their focus will shift towards earning to sustain their lifestyle.
It is conveyed that the primary purpose of labor has shifted from basic needs to maintaining a lifestyle enhanced by technology, which requires more money.
The author is of the opinion that creativity will become our main means of exchange in the future, as it is a domain where humans will maintain an edge over artificial intelligence.

Creativity is what would keep us relevant

You can already see how we are all turning into content creators. It’s exciting to think about it because people now have to use their inborn talents to earn. The internet has made it possible to reach a wider audience — getting to people who would see value in your content is easier than ever.

I wrote an article on how the future would be all about programming and content. The programmers would create software to do the monotonous jobs, and content creators would entertain, teach, and do adverts with their content.

Many jobs would be lost. We are already seeing how many jobs are going out of date because of software — when last did you hear of a typist? Or a movie rental shop? But more opportunities would rise up from them. It’s normal for old jobs to die for new ones to come in. Before social media, there wasn’t a need for social media managers, Facebook ads specialists, social media influencers, even Instagram models.

Youtube created more opportunities for vloggers, video editors, animators, etc. Websites created opportunities for web designers, bloggers, content writers, and so on. For any job lost, more would be created.

One thing I’m sure of about the future is that we will have more free time to focus on making money. Technology aims to reduce our workload. But, we would be working more to maintain the lifestyle because these technologies wouldn’t be cheap. A few generations back, one income was enough to satisfy a family, but not anymore because we have a higher cost of living which means we need to make more money to maintain it.

That’s a story for another time.

Right now, what is stopping many people from self-expression is their jobs. There’s the excuse that there won’t be any time to do “what you love” because of a 9–5. But it won’t be the same in the future because we would have no other choice — the COVID-19 has already started the trend.

There are already 3D printers that can print food today. Try to imagine how advanced they would be 5–7 years from now? We may not even have to go to a restaurant anymore. The more technology advances, the more we have to do less.

We can use our phones to talk to someone thousands of miles away — no need to send a raven or whatever they used back in the day. We have Netflix to choose from thousands of shows, unlike before where people had to go to Blockbuster to rent a cassette and watch it from a VCR. If you picked one movie, that’s what you’d watch till you go out to another one. That was the routine. They had to make the extra effort to go and get movies. But now, we can just do it by just moving our fingers.

I read something sometime where they said, people in the past moved around parts of the world because of production, and in the future, people would move around because of entertainment. And I thought of people like us living in 3rd world countries (Nigeria still doesn’t have good roads or constant electricity). Many Nigerians are trying to leave the country to more developed countries because of better jobs and opportunities.

But with remote work growing, companies now have a wider talent pool and can easily hire skilled 3rd world country workers. So everybody can stay where they are and enjoy the benefits of the 1st world countries(I’m still trying to leave though) And they would only have to go to these places on vacations and for other entertainment reasons not related to work.

With more help from technology, many things would be automated, and we wouldn’t have to do as much work as we do now. We would soon be the ones giving our kids the “This generation is lazy” speech because the next generation would literally do nothing.

Their primary focus would be to earn to sustain their lifestyle. Just the way we work to pay our bills — electricity, phone, etc. Those bills were nonexistent before, but now we have them because they make our lives easier. If you think there are bills to pay today, think about the bills we would have to settle in the future because of the new technologies.

We have more dependence on money today than it was in the olden days. In the past, their primary purpose of labor was for food, clothing, and shelter. When you had all that covered, you were termed successful. But today, because of technology, we have to make more money to maintain the lifestyle, which means less time doing menial jobs and more time doing things that make us more money

Robotics, for example, would handle most of the jobs we’re doing now, which would leave us with more time to work for money or get entertained. And since most of the labor would be done by artificial intelligence, our creativity would be our primary means of exchange.

There would be more paywalled platforms that pay creatives; more content creators; more jobs around content (the makeup artists, stylists, directors, video editors, graphics designers, and who knows what else the future holds). This is so because the edge we would have over artificial intelligence would be our creativity.

So, if you’re not into programming, all you have left is content.

Thank you for reading.