Liquid Modernity

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Definition

As society progresses, the creation of value liquefies and flows more smoothly. Liquid Modernity is Zygmunt Bauman's term "for the present condition of the world as contrasted with the "solid" modernity that preceded it. According to Bauman, the passage from "solid" to "liquid" modernity has created a new and unprecedented setting for individual life pursuits, confronting individuals with a series of challenges never before encountered. Social forms and institutions no longer have enough time to solidify and cannot serve as frames of reference for human actions and long-term life plans, so individuals have to find other ways to organise their lives."

To survive, interfaces must quickly flow from spaces of high-resistance and poor usability to spaces that reduce the number of interface changes needed to get to relevant data. Environments are becoming aware of relevant information, and are able to pull context-aware data into play when necessary. In All That is Solid Melts Into Air, Marshall Berman discusses the transition from heavy modernity to light modernity, and the machine revolution that occurred when more power was concentrated into increasingly smaller spaces. As Sheldon Renan says, “devices can be small on the outside, but huge on the inside”.

"Individuals have to splice together an unending series of short-term projects and episodes that don't add up to the kind of sequence to which concepts like "career" and "progress" could be meaningfully applied. Such fragmented lives require individuals to be flexible and adaptable — to be constantly ready and willing to change tactics at short notice, to abandon commitments and loyalties without regret and to pursue opportunities according to their current availability. In liquid modernity the individual must act, plan actions and calculate the likely gains and losses of acting (or failing to act) under conditions of endemic uncertainty". We no longer have the time to fully consider options and mature into something before it changes.