We are a couple days away from saying goodbye to 2020 and finally welcoming in a new year, and we bet that years ago a lot of people thought 2020 would look a whole lot different than it actually did.
USA Today put out with a list of the most common predictions folks had about 2020 from 10,20, and even 30 years ago, and they may just surprise you.
Predictions about 2020 included:
- Computers would be invisible– Ten years ago folks thought you wouldn’t be able to see computers in 2020, and that prediction is largely true with computers embedded everywhere in things like smart homes, smart tables, smart chairs, smart desks and more.
- Books will be dead– Thanks to the Internet and e-readers, many expected books to be a thing of the past, but they aren’t going anywhere. Although publishing has been decreasing, nearly 26 billion books were still sold in 2018.
- Your every move will be tracked– Many expected that technology would cause some major privacy issues, and that’s largely true, with things like our smartphones, TVs and browsers knowing everything we do these days.
- World’s population would reach 8 billion– Research suggested the world’s population would be at about 8 billion by 2020, and while it’s close, it didn’t quite make it, with a United Nations report revealing the world’s population is only 7.7 billion.
- We’ll have self-driving cars– Another prediction that’s kind of true thanks to the introduction of autonomous vehicles by companies like Tesla and Waymo, although some say it will still be decades before we have fully self-driving vehicles.
- Americans will vote electronically from home– Sadly that’s still not the case and we all have to head to the polls, but that’s probably a good thing considering fears of foreign interference in U.S. elections.
- We’ll have “personal companions:”Anyone who relies on Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant knows that’s pretty much true.
- Humans will step foot on Mars– No people yet, but there have been eight unmanned aircraft that have landed on the planet.
Click here for more 2020 predictions.