Looking ahead to tech trends and the top stories of 2014

The start of a new year always gets us thinking about what new innovations, tech trends and successful startups the next 365 days will bring. While this may not be the year that we finally get our hoverboards—sorry, McFly, that’s 2015—our editorial team came up with five tech trends we’re excited to watch play out…

The start of a new year always gets us thinking about what new innovations, tech trends and successful startups the next 365 days will bring.

While this may not be the year we finally get our hoverboards—sorry, McFly, that’s 2015—our editorial team came up with five tech trends we’re intrigued by for the next year.

Tell us what we’re missing out on in the comments below or tweet them using #SPNtrends and we just may add them in!

1. The rise of the 3D printer

It seemed like 2013 was the Year of the 3D Printer. Whether it was NASA funding a prototype 3D pizza printer or doctors right here in Iowa using 3D printers to create models—and maybe one day actual, functioning replicas—of human organs, we were blown away by the possibilities of this new technology. And with the rise in popularity of products like MakerBot, the mass market response to 3D printing, it doesn’t seem too unlikely that we’ll be seeing 3D printers much more frequently in 2014.

2. Google Glass proliferation

Google Glass is set to get its widespread release sometime in 2014. While select “Glass Explorers” have served as a beta class, it will be fascinating to see the response to the device as they become more widespread.

There has already been a backlash of sorts over the covert nature of its photography and its legal ramifications. Does it count for distracted driving? It did for a California woman who was issued a citation for wearing Glass while driving in October.

What will be interesting in 2014, is whether Google Glass is accepted by the mainstream or if it will be a novelty device used by only the techiest of crowds. The high price ($1,500) alone may cause it to lean primarily toward the tech crowd. The other consideration is how will it be used by the masses. Education? Consumption? Or just another platform to send inane tweets?

This conversation on Google Glass leads us in to another trend for 2014..

3. Privacy long gone?

Is 2014 the year we say goodbye to privacy as we’ve known it? Privacy took a dive in 2013 with the revelation of the National Security Agency’s PRISM program and how creepily accurate iOS 7’s “frequent locations” tool is. (Really, my iPhone tells me where, when and how long it takes me to do my laundry at the laundromat). It’s the ultimate location tracker that spends all day in your pocket.

To file under other upsetting privacy stories in 2013: the hack that lets your Macbook camera spy on you without your knowledge.

In 2014, will we give up on trying to keep our lives and data public or will their be a paradigm shift when it comes to public vs. private?

4. Growing popularity of Bitcoin & online currency

This year the Internet was buzzing with talks of Bitcoin, a mysterious (to the masses) online currency. It hit the fringes of use in the Midwest in 2013—a dentist in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is allowing customers to pay for teeth cleaning via Bitcoin. But Bitcoin’s value tanked by nearly 50 percent after Chinese exchanges refused to accept it in mid-December.

Will Bitcoin hit the mainstream or will it fizzle out because of low values? In 2014, it will continue to be talked about and more will start to understand it, but it’s not going to be mainstream any time soon.

5. The (potential) burst of the social media bubble

The Internet was in an uproar after Snapchat rejected Facebook’s $3 billion buyout offer, but how sustainable are the social media platforms we’ve adopted in 2013? With studies about younger tech users’ exodus from Facebook and saturation of the social app market, we can’t help but wonder if we’re heading toward the bursting of the social media bubble. How much more social media can we take?

But with Twitter’s successful IPO launch and users (and advertisers) flooding photo sharing platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest, there could be hope yet.

 

Got a tech trend you think will be big this year? Leave your predictions in the comments below and tweet them at us using #SPNtrends. 

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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