The author, David Pearce Snyder, begins his article, Five Meta-Trends Changing the World,” by giving a clear definition as to what constituted a meta-trend. He explained that his definition came from communication between himself and a client requesting his input and which they had agreed upon the definition. The meta-trends would be free-standing global trends of the future. This definition helped to establish some clarity for me as I began to read the article. The author uses subheadings to answer each of five questions in a clear and succinct manner. Yes, I think the article was written in a clear manner.
Although the author gave his opinion in each of the five areas discussed, and gave supporting references for each, I still do not believe that I would classify the article as overly biased. It was clearly opinionated in each area. It did appear, however, that if I was to be sitting with the author and having a discussion, and a different viewpoint, he would enable me to share my point with him in a reasonable manner.
The author did effectively communicate his position on each of the five topics that were presented. He gave clear examples each time. He supported his position in a concise manner with examples that were easy to understand.
The first question that the author answered for me was the definition of a meta-trend. Without that being clear, I would not have been able to continue with the assignment in a confident manner. The other question I had was about transactional transparency. His brief definition helped, however, that is the area where I still have questions. It may be due to my lack of experience in the business world or it may be because of my age, but this is the most confusing part of the article to me. I still do not completely understand how transparency will affect me or my financial future.
I am one of the people that the author mentions that does not pay much attention to world news on a daily basis. I watch the large events. I watch the events that affect my cultural heritage and my people. Is this selfish or an American view?
I also agree about people always being available because of cell phones. Younger users especially text, which is not emphasized in the article, but few people seem to turn off their devices and seize part of their lives back as private.
I think that people in America still look to professions where they are interested, and not necessarily on how these professions or their degrees will fair in the international marketplace. Is this something that better educated families focus on? Or families that have had many generations of schooling that are unlike my situation? That may be. I am going by my experiences and what I have seen. It seems that students going into college major in areas of their interests.
Texting, especially with younger people, remains a private form of communication that really is not addressed by the author. He speaks of private conversations no longer being private because they are being held in public places on cell phones, but texting is almost the exclusive form of communication of people under forty.
The need for financial institutions to have transparency is something that I had given very little thought to as it had previously not affected me, but probably soon will.
