Welcome to the decade of sympathetic influence

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We’re in 2021 now (more like December 38th, 2020, amirite?) and with it, we enter a new decade of change. This decade will see untold investment in green energy, public transit, and space exploration. Emerging from the past two decades of inward retreat, looking into our future, I realize that there is so much promise for a future-looking world.

That world will be reinformed by the new global and economic powers. I’m talking about India and China, who will, in this decade and the next, surpass the USA as the #1 and #2 economic superpowers. For as long as I’ve been alive we’ve heard stories about Western influence on culture and the middle class in Asia. Our exports of Americana have been adopted en masse—from Mickey Mouse to Captain America. From music to art to technology, American influence can be found in the cultural emergence of these two economies and their citizens. 

But the world is changing. We’re entering a decade of sympathetic influence. This phenomenon—that a cultural change instigator can itself be changed—can be seen just about everywhere. In less than a decade, we saw Apple eschew skeuomorphism (the concept of designing digital interfaces to mimic real-world interactions, such as a note-taking app resembling a physical legal pad) for digitally-native icons. eCommerce has developed a unique language that does away with the “shopping cart” and the “checkout” in favor of one-click and always-logged in stateful payments.

And now it appears in the culture. K-pop is being delivered to our televisions via popular video games like Just Dance, or through social media apps like TikTok (another Chinese import). Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2020, a first for a foreign-language film. From Katy Perry to Drake, Asian influences are being sampled and remixed to stay relevant to the changing tastes of the American public.

Work itself is changing. Building a wall to prevent the import of undocumented migrant labor is anachronist in the digital economy. How do you compete with influencer schools in china? No border wall cannot stop a digital cultural migration.

Food hasn’t escaped the influence. The explosion of bone broth brands as a category of keto and paleo-friendly food was largely inspired by the rapid spread of pho in non-Vietnamese restaurants in the United States since 2010. Heck, Whole Foods alone carries 98 varieties of bone broth. Newly-launched DTC darlings include FlyByJing, a Sichuan sauce maker, and immi, mail-order “better-for-you” ramen. These imports signal a growing American palate that is exploring more of what the world has to offer.

And the digital influences on the physical are all around us: self-checkout, delivery apps, and mobile payments. Just-walk-out technology is becoming more commonplace. Just-in-time workforce is enabling a new business model of 2-hour delivery in select markets thanks to FastAF and Darkstore.

Culture itself—art, music, fashion, social institutions—will be shaped by freer global markets that are more open, more transparent, and have greater access than they have in the past decade. In part due to the change of governmental priorities here in the States, yes, but also because of the readiness of the West and its society.

The physical world as we know it is being reimagined based on the digital experience economy, and the emergence of new markets. These economic shifts will create opportunities for those who see them as challenges to embrace rather than obstacles to defeat.