Will communications take on characteristics of sustainability?

With the global financial storm raging, it seems more likely than not that we’ve entered a new age of frugality, where resourcefulness and conservation will become more ingrained in our daily lives. The changes in our behavior—both as individuals and as a culture—could be widespread and dramatic.

Many of us have already begun to cut down on consumption, putting off big purchases or eliminating small luxuries, like our morning latte. That will probably accelerate. Services that allow people to pool resources to defray costs—like Zipcar, the hourly car rental service--could become more diverse and prevalent. Some people might become more self-sufficient, developing or reviving skills in home or auto repair, for instance. Bartering of services and expertise could become more common. Rather than tossing stuff, we’ll hold on to it longer, find new uses for it or offer it up on Freecycle. More social networks like Urban Edibles, a site that documents wild food sources such as apple, walnut and fig trees here in Portland, Oregon, will spring up. And on and on.
 
All of which got me thinking about how ground-shifting forces can also alter the ways we communicate. For example, the technology boom has fundamentally changed the types and frequency of our communications over the past decade or so. We’re all connected, all the time. We process information in smaller and smaller chunks. We expect immediate responsiveness. We assume anything we say or write or do could be made public. We adopt alter online selves. And we rely on shorthand, a symptom of our overcommitted schedules and fragmented thinking.

When the dust settles, I think the financial crisis will have a similar effect on communications. My guess is that how we talk, write, broadcast, blog, etc. will evolve to reflect and serve our new priorities, values and skills. Our communications, in other words, will take on some of the characteristics of sustainability.

What could that look like? We’ll pay more attention to messages that speak to and celebrate our renewed sense of self-reliance. We’ll seek out and share local expertise. We’ll place greater value on substantive information, insight and instruction rather than fragmented tips, ill-informed opinions and sketchy promises. The pace of communications will slow and simplify, reflecting a culture throttling back on its pace of serial consumption. We’ll participate in more social networks, but they’ll be increasingly specialized and defined by shared geography as much as shared interests. Our vocabulary will reshape itself and new idioms will spring up to express our revised thinking about our concerns and relationships.

Much of this will be incremental and subtle, most evident when we look back in five or ten years. But I suspect politicians, talk show hosts and marketers—people who are particularly attuned to public discourse—are already adapting (or soon will be). They’re the early adopters of communications. They stake their success on anticipating, shaping and capitalizing on these sorts of changes. I’ll be paying attention to them in the coming months for clues about whether my guesses hold any water.

Christian works for AHA!, a communications firm with expertise in writing located in Vancouver, Wash., just across the Columbia River from Portland. Visit Shiny Green Button, his blog on communications, brands and sustainability.