How Might Exploration and Play Define the Future of Youth Culture?
Following on from our ‘Future of Cool’ webinar last week, our cultural curators Aysia, Sik, Hector and Roisin shared unique ideas and perspectives on what this looks like for them individually, their cities and culture at large.
While there were nuances in their respective insights, there was commonality and understanding in what coolness meant for them. Coolness has clearly evolved to reflect the cultural landscape they live in, and, as active participants and contributors in their environments, they are emboldened by previous generations despite the barriers laid out before them.
Before the webinar, we asked our panellists to provide their own past, present and future representations of coolness in the form of a moodboard. In each of the moodboards, there was an apparent intersection between music, fashion, art, design. film and street culture. What was particularly insightful was the red thread that emerged in their past, present and future representations: pushing the boundaries and exploring the margins of what had been explored previously.
Past
Present
Future
Mainstream media will denigrate younger generations for being ‘lazy’ and lacking the social skills to develop in an ever-changing world, but contrary to popular belief, it’s clear that there is a sense of purpose, drive and belief in themselves, shaped by the following values:
- Curiosity
- Sincerity
- Freedom
- Unity
Curiosity
Curiosity can mean anything; it’s as expansive as our imaginations can be. For our panellists, this showed up as moving from the point of ideation to creation, taking the next step in understanding how that spark can be acted upon.
Sincerity
Hector put it beautifully, ‘to be cringe is to be free’. We’ve seen this play out in so many different ways, and few recent cultural moments have done this so obviously as Timothee Chalamet and the Marty Supreme rollout. The actor wasn’t afraid to take risks and show that he cared deeply about the project. He moved away from ideas of not wanting to be perceived; he simply didn’t care about the notion entirely.
Freedom
With our algorithms and feeds defining so much of what we consume, there’s become an apparent rejection of slop and sameness among young people across the world. And it’s not necessarily about being unique and individual, people will always strive for that, no, it’s about having the freedom to decide for yourself, who and what you want to be.
Unity
A clear tension that we saw is the idea of unity, and one of the ways this has been showing up is through gatekeeping. Gatekeeping and where people stand have proven to be contentious, but arguably one of the most profound ways young people are overcoming this hurdle is through coming together. Perhaps brands have focused too heavily on ideas of community in recent years when what they truly mean is unity; this idea of working together with a shared purpose, belief and understanding.
The future of cool feels far more certain, and all signs point to exploration and play defining what that means going forward. We’ve already seen this play out globally in many different ways, both at macro and micro levels. And in order to better understand what exploration and play look like globally, taking a hyperlocal approach allows us to observe and interpret how this can manifest in our respective cities.
Over the coming month, we’ll be investigating the theme of exploration and play with a particular focus on how this is already showing up and what this could look like in the future.