Our latest report, Think Forward: The Liveable Web explores the five key trends set to shape social over the next 12 months. In this blog, we take a look at the trend ‘New Intimacies’ exploring how in an increasingly segregated world, audiences are craving togetherness – and pushing for a new internet that bonds us again.
When did we lose the “social” in social media? That’s the question a movement of internet users have been asking of late – and it’s led to a new type of internet that harks back to social’s early days. Many of today’s legacy platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, were initially designed to facilitate existing IRL friendships, and perhaps foster some new ones along the way. Since TikTok gained cultural clout, however, social has leaned more towards entertaining us than keeping us connected. Open up a social app today and your friends’ faces are statistically unlikely to be what greet you. Instead, our feeds have become infinite scrolls of memes and skits and selfies from infinite creators, selected by the algorithm to brighten up our days. Now social users are pushing back.
Audiences’ craving for something more personable – an internet that helps rather than hinders forging long-lasting bonds – has led to new modes of intimacy online. People are participating in fandoms like never before, and research shows they’re doing so for the communal element of feeling part of something bigger than them – a tribe – as much as they’re doing so to share their love for an artist they adore. There are even reports of users who aren’t particularly interested in a given artist or brand engaging with them purely for the social benefits of their fandom: for example, non-fans of rock artist John Mayer have been turning to the John Mayer Discord to find love, having heard that it’s a dating hot spot.
Elsewhere, a new type of online gate-keeping has emerged, too. A year ago, the practice was heavily criticised. Now, people are reclaiming the word as a valid way of keeping spaces, niches, communities and their aesthetics pure. It’s become a protective world instead of an exclusionary one.
Beyond these new approaches to fandom and gatekeeping, there’s the trend of audiences bonding over isolation itself. Dating icks and the viral TikTok track “I’m looking for a man in finance” are all examples of a powerful wave of digital culture, helping people connect over their lack of connection.
Read about how brands like Stanley, The Row and REFY are embracing and responding to New Intimacies, and the lessons marketers can learn in Think Forward: The Liveable Web. Download your free copy now for this, and all five trends.
