global

Marian Salzman: 'Local will be the new global'

Marian Salzman travels the world spotting media trends. The top futurologist gives her predictions on how we’ll live and work in 2010.

By Ian Burrell

You have to hand it to Marian Salzman. For someone known internationally as a media futurist it takes some self-confidence to confess that you thought Facebook was just a pointless student fad, and that your initial reaction to Twitter was that it was “a ridiculous thing”.

But Salzman, writer, advertising executive, global public relations guru, has every faith in her judgement, having spent her career spotting trends invisible to most of us until she gave them a name. She is the author of books with titles such as Next, Now and Buzz and The Future of Men and has championed such new breeds as the “Wigger” (suburban whites infatuated with black urban culture) and the “Metrosexual” (the sensitive, city-dwelling modern male).

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