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Keywords for Predicting the Future [1/13]"Digital Makeup" Creates a New Market for Self-Discovery
This is the first installment of the serialized feature "Keywords for Predicting the Future" by the Future Prediction Support Lab. Lab members, each with their own specialized field, distill their envisioned future society into keywords from their unique perspectives, which we will introduce in this series. We hope the keywords we present will spark new ideas.
When posting photos on social media like Instagram, the act of editing one's own photos is called "enhancing," and for young social media enthusiasts, it's no longer anything special.
Every day, they strive to make the person in the photo resemble their ideal self, using editing apps to adjust everything from the eyes and skin tone to the contours and nasolabial folds, carefully navigating the line between enhancement and overdoing it.
For the social media generation, self-image seems not fixed but rather a malleable concept that can be adapted to suit the time, place, and occasion.
With the advancement of VR and AR technologies, the barrier between the real world and the digital world is steadily lowering. In the future of social media, communication might be possible not just through photos, but through more realistic and immersive representations of oneself.
If that happens, the value of one's real-world self-image will likely decrease relatively. Instead, the virtual self-image on social media—which offers opportunities to interact with more people online—will become more important, creating a kind of value inversion.
In such a world, demand for "digital makeup" – the pursuit of an ideal self-image for social media, even at a cost – is likely to take off in earnest.
Individuals might even hire their own exclusive "digital" makeup artists, much like celebrities or models do. The skills of these "digital" makeup artists would likely create an ideal self-image rich in natural, nuanced subtlety, free from the artificial look of machine-based processing.
In the real world, attempts to alter one's appearance face physical limitations like inherent facial features and body type. However, the world of "digital makeup" knows no such physical boundaries.
Digital makeup, capable of satisfying people's boundless desire to find their ideal self, may form a surprisingly large market.
What did you think? On the Future Prediction Support Lab homepage, you can explore various keywords predicting the future beyond what we've introduced here.
Future Prediction Support Lab: http://dentsu-fsl.jp/
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Author
Naota Ogura
Dentsu Inc.
Future Scenario Consulting Department, 4th Marketing Bureau
General Manager (GM)
After working in newspaper advertising, he served as an Account Executive for telecom companies and restaurant chains, planning advertising campaigns. Later, as a Media Planner, he joined the "Dentsu Inc. Media Innovation Lab," where he uncovered and disseminated insights on the latest media usage, from television to social media. In 2019, he established a specialized division supporting companies through future forecasting. Building on this expertise, he founded "Future Business Creation Research" in July 2021.Using proprietary methodologies, he supports corporate new business and product development. Furthermore, in November 2021, he launched the consumer research project "DENTSU DESIRE DESIGN," focusing on developing solutions that leverage the underlying psychology behind consumer behavior—namely, "desire." His publications include 'Information Media White Paper 2018,' 'Information Media White Paper 2019,' 'Future Thinking Concepts,' and 'What Will Future Consumers Desire?'
Insight MemoSmartphones: A Decade of Creative DestructionInfluencer Marketing 2.0Keywords for Predicting the FutureThe "Time Performance Era": How Should We Design Viewing Environments for Consumers?From "Reiwa: Survey on the Future Young People Want 2019" Hints for Reaching Young People Living in the Reiwa EraExploring Pathways from the "Quality of Society Survey" to a "Society" Where People Find Meaning in LifeCurrent State of Public Awareness and Values as Seen in the "Quality of Society Annual Survey 2021"
