Are we trendy?

A trend is the general course or prevailing tendency, a move in a certain direction over time, the general direction - it is an expected continuum of the current state. A trend is based on history and provides a view of the future. Understanding trends helps us to be prepared for the future - to be proactive instead of being reactive. So - life should be easy: just recognize the trend and be prepared for the future. There is, unfortunately, a minor problem. Sometimes the trends do not coincide with the future reality. The reasons for this are manifold: we have followed the wrong trend, the conditions behind the trend have changed, “trend makers” have changed the trend, etc. Regardless of uncertainty, there is not much really new that is not already recognizable today if we are talking of the near future, 5-10 years from now. We seek the answer to the question in the title by analyzing the messages of reports by the most commonly known trend analysts. The focus of our paper is on the phenomena related to the information society. The main trend enabler is technology, especially information technology. The paper discusses trends as a means for future analysis first on the level of theory and then it provides a synthesis of the some recognized trends affecting our future.