We're Not Your Content: Ten Forecasts for the Age of Refusal

What replaces the co-option of collectives, the purchasing of culture and art primed for the post?

Vulgarised, swooped up by sensationalism and co-opted by out-of-touch brands all clawing for relevance, the overuse of “community” as a term parallels its deeply felt absence as a pillar in our social fabric.

Fashion houses, publications, and corporations that once ignored inner-city collectives now scramble to commodify them, buying into culture as a product, not a principle, while exploiting a loneliness epidemic engineered by capitalist design and intensified by the endless scroll.

Despite what the zeitgeist may say, communities are not the marketable collectives that pop up on our feeds; community is the thread that ties human activity together, typically keeping people within reasonable proximity accountable and responsible for each other's well-being and for alleviating the pressures of daily life.

Community cannot be bought into, it transcends transactionality, it's spontaneous, but consistent, and it counters what the self-help industry has told us for the last five years, we do in fact owe people our time, company and energy.

So how do we approach or navigate community and when its traditional function is stifled by inner-city architecture, strained economies and hustle culture?

How will creative output manifest itself in a landscape that is growing tired of engaging while the world burns and we desperately yearn for connection?

1. F**k the Algorithm!

Creators are increasingly rejecting the demands of the algorithm and its constant recalibrations at the whim of tech oligarchs. We are collectively navigating fatigue from trying to anticipate which format, dimension, and quantity of posts a week will optimise growth; thus, awareness of its fickle nature is pushing artists to prioritise their art over metrics.

Incrementally, people are, if anything, being forced to let go. We should expect to see more artists creating in the medium, format, and length they desire, and if they choose to post online, they’ll do so on their terms. Re-centering the process and de-centering the “post”.

Art first, engagement second.

2. The End of the Artist-City Relationship?

The metropolitan city, its pressures and its concrete charm, has for decades been a nucleus for creative minds; a breeding ground for the absurd, the groundbreaking and the avant-garde. But the trade-offs are shifting. The charm begins to fade when nightlife, spontaneity, and free thrills no longer compensate for exorbitant rent and financial instability.

The self-inflicted hardship of damp flat-shares, buying mags, 35mm or hard drives before dinner and rent has reached a breaking point.

More creatives are yearning for tangible community and rejecting hustle culture. Many more are reconsidering the necessity of city life, moving to smaller cities with quaint appeal, countries that better facilitate a work-life balance, or embracing a nomadic existence. The idea that artistic success is tied to a single geographic location is unraveling, and for the better.

3. A Return to Subculture?

As more people practice digital detoxes, whether an offline Sunday or a few hours away from screens each morning, slowly our existences may become less tethered to the internet.

If more people engage in independent experiences determined by their own interests and environments instead of experiences suggested by the algorithm, will we see new tributaries of culture that can rival mass media? Counter-cultures have typically emerged in tandem with recessions or economic downturns; however, the ubiquity of social media has strengthened the sway of mass culture and conformity.

Subcultures are, of course, not dead, but they enter the mainstream faster than ever. Access to cultural markers, the gear and accessories, offer an ease into the visual outline of cultures that originally developed through real-life experiences. However, with these changes, can we expect the end of #cores and the rebirth of genuine counter-culture? I think, with time, it’s possible.

4. Cultural apathy is out, earnestness is in.

Being a blank canvas for brands does not wield the same appeal as it once did. As the world state worsens, standing for nothing is no longer chic, cool, or unproblematic as flattened-out Western creators have tried to embody. It’s now as incredibly lame as it should have been.

Likewise, every online context being source material for a long-running joke or viral moment is losing its charm. Audiences are numb to irony and want real, considered takes, not just content optimised for engagement.

Recent artist success stories highlight the power of sincerity, zeal, and unfiltered self-expression. Though irony has been a survival mechanism in bleak times, it’s time we got real.

5. The Post-Impulse Economy

With the swell of the wellbeing industry and rising financial literacy, audiences are becoming more clued up on marketing manipulation that exploits the voice in our heads that says we deserve a treat or one more scroll. With a keen eye you can identify that the impulse economy is shifting and behaviours are changing.

While midnight purchases won’t disappear, consumers are becoming more intentional, opting for secondhand goods, quality materials, and sustainable choices. Though some of this is recession-driven, it signals a longer-term behavioral shift.

This could extend beyond spending habits, reshaping attention on social affairs, less swayed by momentary outrage, distractions, and surface-level narratives, people may develop a stronger attention span for deeper issues and more sustainable political stamina.

6. Cull of Collective Craze

The obsession with collectives may contract as audiences grow tired of experiencing friendship and community vicariously through media and or events run by “collectives” that are placed on a pedestal. Instead, they’ll seek it in real life, reinvesting in third spaces in their own neighbourhoods instead of through the screen.

With growing awareness of the fact that brands have co-opted Black collectives to push products, disguising marketing as cultural solidarity, #community fatigue will intensify and the desire for genuine, non-transactional belonging will grow.

7. Doom Scroll out, Digital garden in!

Consumption won't be going anywhere, but our approach to engagement is shifting. Many are realising that TikTok eureka moments are too fleeting, wiped from the memory by the next scroll. To combat this, more people will turn to “Digital Gardening”, a term popularised by YouTubers Odysseas and Anna Howard.

The practice involves creating a personal archive where you preserve anything that struck or inspired you from any media you consumed in a week, accompanied by your independent thoughts. For example, a discourse on TikTok, the styling in a campaign, quotes from a mag article, or a shot in a TV show, but with your added analysis.

The goal? To redevelop independent thought and cultivate a bank of references for future creativity. Consumption isn’t the enemy; mindless consumption is.

8. The New Convenience of Inconvenience

More people are recognising their role in contributing to the loneliness epidemic and acknowledging that true community requires effort. The inconvenience of evening calls, helping a friend move, or attending grad parties is becoming more attractive, especially as we realise that things that take time away from the comfort of our individuality offer something far richer.

People disturb routine and genuine connection isn't easy or immediate, but community is what makes life worth living.

9. The Fitness and Wellness Bubble Needs a Reset

The fitness and wellness industry is accelerating at an unsustainable pace. What began as a space for self-improvement and accessibility is, in many online bubbles, now a performance-driven, competitive landscape, increasingly focused on validation and productivity rather than actual well-being. Though running clubs, hiking groups and their peers have made fitness more community-centred, a landscape-wide cultural correction may be due.

10. So What's the Story?

Creative careers are more viable now than they ever have been, yet the growth of the creator economy has led to an oversaturation of output lacking in depth. Art, once a tool to push the needle and communicate thought, is now for many just a job.

With growing audience fatigue, publications and brands are already seeing growing engagement drop-offs; to survive, they'll need to cut through the noise by provoking real conversations with genuine critique. Also, rather than the regurgitation of cultural vacuum-dust, letting air flow between each piece of output will signify intention and value, instead of bite-sized pieces of nothing three times a day.

So, with all of this in mind, what pillars will hold up a landscape that doesn't just project community, but builds and experiences it?

What feels like survival is actually killing you. Functioning communities, where each individual proactively contributes to crafting a self-sufficient collective system, are what have historically gotten human populations through recessions, famine and war. Your 5-9 after your 9-5 is not the survival mechanism you think it is.

But this isn’t just about community. It’s about authorship. About refusing to let our identities be flattened into aesthetics or our art and voices into brand assets. Real change begins when we stop feeding machines we didn’t build and start shaping meaning on our own terms.

The question is no longer: how do I keep up?
It’s: what kind of culture do I want to make possible?

Kisses Nubia xxxx