Here is my 2025 In & Out list. I think 2025 will be a year of contraction:
Membership clubs, charter cities, conventions, symposiums, scenes, the local (if you’re lucky to live in the right city)
Group chats, servers, IRL > Timeline / FYP
Small, intimate streams with IRL components ("communities")
Trying to connect physical objects to online worlds, like adult Webkinz, with varying success
Internet culture analysts
Self-critical politics (reflective in the mainstream and extreme/binary thinking on the fringe as a gatekeeping tactic)
Radical feminism (soft, commodified version)
YouTube
Big tech invests in AI companions, bifurcating offline and online further
This ⬆️ causes problems for the mentally ill and elderly
Tech-y people continue to find companionship in Claude
Accelerationism
Fictosexuality and imaginary friends
Networks & bundling
Longevity tech goes mainstream, replacing filler/thinness as a status marker
Continuing to blame the phones—online vs. offline bifurcation grows
Social media continues to trend downwards
Anti-Discord sentiment
Exploring abandoned malls / bringing “liminal spaces” and “weird core” IRL, urbex
Gen Alpha experiments with AI-generated personalities
Terrorism increases
Rebuilding your attention span
Immersive storytelling experiences (but we haven’t cracked it yet)
Narrative in general
Zines
MEAN trolling, like we have not seen since earlier days of the Internet
Fast food
Magic and the supernatural
Renaissance for SNL, NYT, WaPo, etc.; all gatekept media reinvents itself, WaPo in particular
“Meaning,” “spirituality,” “values,” “what does it mean to be human?” “magic”
“Alt media” continues its path to legitimacy
Transgender identity/gender ideology recede as culture war issues
Millennial irony
TikTok and Instagram, social media
The Manosphere
“Democratization”
Botox and filler (but facelifts remain in)
Podcasts, being a “Creator”
Being prolific online, quality > volume; network > content
Individuals being famous/influencers, you need to offer more (e.g., a network or 'immersive' experience). Doesn’t mean they’re all gone, maybe an influencer will host SNL. (h/t my sis, but it’s changing)
Ordering on Amazon (friend tells me she has started to see 'not available on Amazon' stickers)