gen z & gen alpha.
Irony, icons, and Lana Del Rey: Gen Z's post-patriotic Americana
Gen Z has stripped Americana of its political baggage and turned it into a digital outfit. The chunky sweater and the Levi's have nothing to do with patriotism anymore. They're a costume, a character, a vibe to cycle through on the feed.
Read the full thing →The era of algorithmic rizz
AI has found its way into dating apps, and people are using it to craft messages, rewrite profiles, and optimise their matches. The problem is not that people want help. Its that outsourcing your personality creates a gap between who you seem to be online and who you actually are in person.
gen z & gen alphaHow we went from duck face to dissociative numbness
The way we present our faces online has always been a performance. From the millennial duck face to Gen Zs dissociative pout, each era signals something different about what we want people to think of us. Now were splitting into two paths and neither of them looks particularly human.
gen z & gen alphaInfantilisation is more than just an aesthetic; it's institutional pacification.
Infantilisation is not a TikTok trend. It is an institutional strategy designed to keep entire generations passive, compliant, and easy to profit from. This piece breaks down how nostalgia and learned helplessness have been used as tools of cultural control, and what it would actually take to push back.
most read in this topic.
Irony, icons, and Lana Del Rey: Gen Z's post-patriotic Americana
Gen Z has stripped Americana of its political baggage and turned it into a digital outfit. The chunky sweater and the Levi's have nothing to do with patriotism anymore. They're a costume, a character, a vibe to cycle through on the feed.
The era of algorithmic rizz
AI has found its way into dating apps, and people are using it to craft messages, rewrite profiles, and optimise their matches. The problem is not that people want help. Its that outsourcing your personality creates a gap between who you seem to be online and who you actually are in person.
How we went from duck face to dissociative numbness
The way we present our faces online has always been a performance. From the millennial duck face to Gen Zs dissociative pout, each era signals something different about what we want people to think of us. Now were splitting into two paths and neither of them looks particularly human.
Infantilisation is more than just an aesthetic; it's institutional pacification.
Infantilisation is not a TikTok trend. It is an institutional strategy designed to keep entire generations passive, compliant, and easy to profit from. This piece breaks down how nostalgia and learned helplessness have been used as tools of cultural control, and what it would actually take to push back.
I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (and it’s saving the mall)
Gen Z is reviving mall culture because they want instant gratification that online shopping can't deliver. Shoppers aged 18 to 24 bought 62% of merchandise in stores last year. They want to see it, touch it, and walk out with it immediately. Malls also provide third spaces for socialising after COVID lockdowns. Physical shopping encourages mindful purchasing and financial accountability that online buying with delayed payment options doesn't.
Are we living in a post-culture era? And would you know if we were?
Ask five people under 30 what defined the last decade and you'll get five different answers. Ask someone over 60 about the 1960s and they'll all say The Beatles and JFK. This fragmentation signals a post-culture era where shared cultural reference points have dissolved into algorithmic bubbles and niche communities. Culture has become content and algorithms decide what matters instead of human critics.
You met me at a very Chinese time of my life
What started as internet memes about being Chinese became genuine cultural adoption happening in real time. Gua Sha, lymphatic drainage, Chinese cooking, and Lunar New Year traditions have gone mainstream through social media at unprecedented speed and scale.
You’re probably using Jestermaxxing wrong. And you definitely don’t know where it came from.
The viral slang you see everywhere like jestermaxxing, mogging, and looksmaxxing seems harmless. But these terms came from a deeply toxic corner of the internet obsessed with extreme body changes. Most people using these words have no idea about the guy at the center of it all. The steroids. The meth. The bonesmashing. This is how internet language works. The person fades but the words stick around.
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