What are your predictions for the 2020's?

I think social media will start to become a thing of the past as we enter the next 10 years. Already huge numbers of people are turning away from FB as they see its just a tool for the narcissistic or the people who just need any platform to speak.

Taylor swift will have several break ups and write songs about them

Social media will remain, it will just change form. As it has been really for decades, even before the internet.

At an aul fella's chat in the pub, we had noticed a fairly curious tendency for the popular mode of communication to flip between text and audio.

The popularity of services like TikTok and before that snapchat was bemusing. Why would you want to send a message to someone in a video when you can text them?

But then we noticed that before texting was a thing, it was all about phone calls. And our parents would have said, "Why would you text someone when you can just call them?"

And before that, their parents might have said, "Why would I call someone for a chat when I can just write them a letter?"

So it does seem that video communication will dominate in the 2020s like nothing we've seen this decade. This will result in primarily text-based sources like Twitter, Facebook, etc., being consigned to the domain of dinosaur aul fellas. In the same way that we look at physical newspapers now as an archaic thing that old people read, getting your news and current affairs in a text-only format from sites will be something that today's 18-year-olds consider to be slow and out of date.

Non-electric cars will plummet, electric cars will be the majority of new sales by 2025. The first bans on fossil fuel vehicles start in 2030, but lots of manufacturers have already announced the end of their petrol & diesel engines. They don't want to be racing against the clock. By the time the ban kicks in, nobody will have made a new petrol or diesel in a couple of years.

An extension to Brexit.

Conflict in the Middle East. India will not be a superpower.

Sea Levels rising will become a more prominent topic and serious consideration will be given to building a barrier around Greenland to reverse its effects. This will be first of many workarounds to climate change as we fail to fundamentally address the issue at the core.

The quiet decline of the far right as as we enter into a post Trump/Brexit era.

Muslims will no longer be considered the dangerous bad guys. I believe that has already started, much like the Irish in the 90s/2000s.

Pressure will start to come on the super rich billionaire Bill Gates types as the divide between rich and poor gets wider and anger grows.

Worsening climate change conditions, and in a weird awkward way, improved Irish weather.

A combination of nicer weather and a slower economy will have a reduction in tourism out of Ireland. In fact, tourism into the country may improve and help offset the worst of the economic downturn.

Decline of social media, but Facebook will still be a very successful company business wise (with its other interests).

Slight resurgance in boards.ie

Decline of the mobile phone industry as there is less and less sentiment for the latest phone.

Wars and increasing tensions attributed to climate change.

Something big in relation to the Amazon, either a total collapse or the opposite, depending on whos in power.

AR/VR fails to get any further than it is now.

Humans will land on the moon again, but not on Mars.

Electric cars being more prominent than people here predicting, mainly because of the rise of self driving vehicles.

Ireland will go to through another recession, followed by a boom not seen since the real Tiger

A massive terrorist attack or natural disaster

People getting very outraged about something that would have been unfathomable in the previous decade.

Further westernisation of non western countries

Alien life finally found

A massive outbreak of some terrible disease.