2021 ends how 2020 began
Let's try to stay optimistic, folks. But it's hard.
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Sree’s newsletter is produced w/ Zach Peterson (@zachprague). Image by Bitmoji.
🗞 TUNE IN: NYT Readalong guest this week is funnyman Alan Katz (@alankatzbooks), author of 50+ highly acclaimed children’s books- watch this episode, and our archives, at http://readalong.link/youtubeplaylist. The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
📺 My Digimentors team is working with companies and nonprofits around the world to create virtual and hybrid events. We’ve worked on events for 50 people and 100,000. See our updated brochure. Please talk to us if you need events help or social media consulting: sree@digimentors.group.
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AS I SAT DOWN to write this year-end newsletter, our dog Tara started barking at our door. It was our next-door neighbor, an emergency-room doctor, headed to work to put out more Omicron fires. I said hi and thanked him for all he’s doing. Even obscured by his mask and safety glasses, I could see the worry on his face. The same look he had during the worst of 2020 in NYC. [All hail the healthcare workers and others who have to go into work, while people like me have the privilege of working from home.]
This week, we canceled our family trip to Dubai and Goa. We are so sad to miss seeing family after a gap of two years. And so angry at the willfully unvaccinated Americans while poorer nations await vaccine supplies.
With many sporting events being postponed (and brilliant science writer Ed Yong’s 40th birthday party being canceled!) and the news of the exponential spread of the variant, it’s easy to feel the despair of March 2020 all over again. But Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, tells us not to despair.
In addition to the Covid news parallels, there’s another from two years ago: Donald Trump and his cohorts are under investigation, even as he prepares for an election.
How did we get here?
Usually, such grand events and failures are sort of vague things — a lot of different things happen and they come together to create an extraordinary situation. In this case, things are crystal clear. The anti-vaxx movement has become part and parcel of Trump conservativism, and elected officials — all of whom swore an oath to protect the people they represent across all levels of government — have made public health a divisive partisan political issue.
The bottom line is that masks work, vaccines work (as long as enough people get them), and we are back where we started in March 2020 largely because a small, vocal, and often-violent political minority is driving the political and policy agenda in America.
It permeates every aspect of society, and it came to head on January 6, 2021 — an event we are learning more about every day. Here’s reading text messages sent to then-Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as the Capitol was being ransacked:
There’s a lot here — the utter hypocrisy of FoxNews personalities really stands out — but I can’t get past the language they use: “This has gone too far.”
All of these people knew exactly what was going on, that they were directly responsible, and that the crowd answered to Trump and no one else. “This has gone too far,” says it plainly — they knew “this” would happen. They just didn’t know they’d lose control.
The kicker is that January 6 was practice — let that sink in for a minute. It’s only going to get worse, which would seem impossible given where we’re at.
While I’m not one to blame social media, it’s impossible to ignore its role in all of this. Social media drives the news agenda, it’s used as an organizing mechanism, communications platform, and more — and none of the social media giants have paid any price, or even faced the most passive of consequences.
I’ve talked about it a lot in this space, and it’s frankly quite frustrating that so much of what I’ve written and read over the last couple of years still holds up perfectly fine.
But, social media isn’t all bad! Do I tweet too much? Maybe. Do I scroll Twitter too much? Absolutely. In November, Pew Research published a new survey on how Americans use Twitter, and the results are sort of heartening. I’ll admit to being pleasantly surprised about how many people seem to be on Twitter to expand their worlds a bit. It can still be a cesspool of abuse and trolling, but most people on the platform are there for the right reasons.
There were good things that happened this year, of course, and one of them was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov (I was lucky enough to attend in person).
Look at the circumstances under which they were given the prize — exposing corruption, and worse, at the highest levels of government. It’s great that they were awarded the Nobel, but it’s awful that there is such a vast need for their skillset.
Thank you so much for sticking with me this year. It’s been a long twelve months, and it’s hard to be optimistic reading headlines of overflowing hospitals as the holidays approach.
But I’m going to try, Dr. Jha, I’m going to try.
- Sree | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube / Cameo
REMINDER: SURVEY TIME! This time of year, we see trendspotting pundits of all kinds making predictions about what the following year is going to be like. This year, instead of just reading such predictions, we want you to help make them. Please take a look at the first-ever Digimentors Work, Travel and Event Survey. Will take you less than 7 minutes; all participants will be entered in a draw for a $101 Amazon gift card. Deadline is January 5, 2022.
Some prelim predictions:
Shift to sustainability. Remote but with in-person meetings for essential workshops, etc. - Roopa Unnikrishnan, @RoopaOnline
Return to the office won’t happen a large scale before 2023. - Anonymous
Travel will pick back up. However, where hybrid opportunities exist, businesses will be more discriminating about who they send to a physical meeting/who they require to do virtual meetings. - Paula Kiger, @BigGreenPen
A word from our friends at Armory Square Ventures
Our December newsletter is here. Happy Holidays, everyone! In it, we congratulate RealEats on closing a round in October and winning the "Growth Capital Investment of the Year" award from the Upstate Capital Association this month!
For that, a new Medium post, and much more see: https://bit.ly/3sfi3a8
Wishing you and yours abundance and joy for 2022.
- The Armory Square Ventures Team
Tech Tip w/ @newyorkbob: Tech Forecast for 2022: More Wait Than See?
By Robert S. Anthony
Each week, veteran tech journalist Bob Anthony shares a tech tip you don’t want to miss. Follow him @newyorkbob.
Slow and steady wins the race—if you’re a tortoise chasing a hare—but that’s not the way the tech industry works. Unfortunately, if you’re a gadget geek who always seeks the fastest and flashiest gear or even if you just want a modest upgrade for what you have, you may have to be patient in 2022.
There’s hardly a corner of the consumer tech industry untouched by the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain delays, chip shortages and staffing problems. That means that while companies will continue to innovate and create and advertise new products, getting them off the drawing boards and to consumers may be a big challenge in 2022.
For example, when US-based automaker Fisker Inc. first announced the Fisker Ocean, a high-tech, all-electric SUV, in 2020, it planned for early production to start just about now. However, due to the pandemic and other delays, the Ocean, which features a connected app, a huge dashboard tablet and a solar roof which helps charge its battery, won’t go into production until early next year with full production to start in November 2022.
Even the prototype poised to be shown off at next month’s CES, the giant annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, “…won't quite be ready to be driven by members of the press…,” according to an email sent to the media. Still, Fisker has a far better track record than other fledgling automakers.
Byton, a Chinese auto manufacturer, showed off its prototype electric vehicles at CES in 2018, 2019 and 2020 but is now all but out of business due to deep financial issues, with the Covid-19 pandemic possibly providing the proverbial last straw.
While CES 2022 is still on the calendar for Jan. 5-8, it lacks a mega-product to dominate the headlines. According to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which runs CES, advances in self-driving auto technology, 5G communications, health tech, cryptocurrencies and NFTs are among the areas that will be highlighted. However, getting overseas products and exhibits to the show floor may be challenging, even though it will be a much smaller show.
According to CTA estimates, it appears that CES 2022, which will be hybrid, will have less than half the number of exhibitors as the last in-person CES in 2020. About 2,100 exhibitors had signed up as of Dec. 17, according to a CTA press release which made no attendance estimate. CES 2020 had about 4,400 exhibitors and 171,000 attendees.
So, while you may be wowed and amazed by the products and technologies announced at CES 2022 and other tech events, don’t be surprised if you have to wait till midyear to get your hands on them.
Odds & Ends
🩺 Be sure to check out “She’s On Call” podcast with surgeons Sujana Chandrasekhar, MD (@DrSujanaENT), and Marina Kurian, MD (@MarinaKurian). And the live show on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
🗞 TUNE IN: NYT Readalong guest this week is funnyman Alan Katz (@alankatzbooks), author of 50+ highly acclaimed children’s books- watch this episode, and our archives, at http://readalong.link/youtubeplaylist. The Readalong is sponsored by Muck Rack. Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email sree@digimentors.group and neil@digimentors.group.
👀 Did we miss anything? Make a mistake? Do you have an idea for anything we’re up to? Let’s collaborate! sree@sree.net and please connect w/ me: Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube / Cameo.
Two comments:
A prediction re Bob's Tech Tips — I think that the pandemic kick-started so much tech innovation that we will change our attitude toward new products and new ideas. I remember CES in the late 1990s when I saw a refrigerator with what was essentially an iPad on it, and I was stunned. Considering the iPad hadn't been invented yet . . . but I felt the earth shift under me when what I was looking at was a mock-up of the "internet of things."
About 2021 — I read a tweet by Pamela Colloff: "I keep hoping there will be a day, one day, when I'm cleaning out my closet, and I come across a box of N95 masks...and I shake my head slowly in amazement, like I've just come across an old high school photo, and I can hardly remember what that faraway time was like." For old people like me, well, we don't have time for this to become a "faraway time."