Or: Why We’re Collectively Obsessed With Facebook’s Avatars, GIFs & Animal Crossing’s Villagers. In a meta-analysis of 30 trend reports for 2020, the most commonly predicted cultural shift was the continued blur between the physical and digital. Online and offline are progressively overlapping — from virtual clothes and AR makeup, to industrial digital twins and synthetic influencers. There’s only ever been one “real life”, but the line between the virtual and visceral is thinning. Expression surrogates augment our communication.

In light of the pandemic, with life moving online, this lack of distinction has only accelerated. We can Zoom to celebrate your birthday virtually, but the congregation still very much real. We’re together, but not together together. It’s all quite perplexing when we stop to think about it.

More noteworthy, the surge online has concentrated this top 2020 trend to one area: communication. Required to express thoughts and feelings without touch, direct eye contact, or the ability to discern micro expressions through screens, many are struggling, facing Zoom Fatigue. More, burdened with heavy, complex and unfamiliar emotions, the challenge of articulation compounds. It’s just too hard to say what we want or share what we mean, let alone deduce it all through the 0’s and 1’s.

One burgeoning solution? Delegate someone else to communicate for you.

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