Play First: Curiosity as resistance to convenience culture

When the ‘2016’ nostalgia swept over Instagram and TikTok at the start of this year, even the most trend-averse social media users got caught up in it, posting sepia-hued throwbacks of their younger selves wearing chokers and ripped jeans. Of course, there were the usual criticisms around the futility of yearning for a bygone era, and the reality that 2016 was not actually a very good year, with Brexit and Trump’s election sparking a downward spiral of extremist politics and economic decline. But there was also an atmosphere of fond reflection as we looked back to the freedom and carelessness with which we once posted.

After years of maintaining a hyper-controlled and polished aesthetic online, a persona that has undoubtedly leaked into our offline lives (with many pointing to the lack of dancing in nightclubs as evidence of social media’s impact on our self-consciousness), Gen Z are yearning for a more fun and playful experience of life. One where we are allowed to show the process to perfection (mistakes and bad choices included), without fear of being perceived. 

Because, as we discussed in ‘The Slow Revolution’, it's in the process that meaning is found. And with convenience culture increasingly cutting that journey out for us, there is a greater desire to reconnect with it. After all, what is perfection if it can be achieved at the click of a button? What value does it hold anymore? 

As our research into ‘The Future of Cool’ found, one of the ways in which Gen Z are reconnecting with this journey is through curiosity. And specifically a childlike curiosity that favours whimsey, experimentation and openness. Reverting to a state of intrigue and excitement that comes with early age, asking ‘why’ of everything, and being prepared to learn from your mistakes without self-criticism. 

With the world changing so rapidly, and often in ways that seem scary or destructive, young people are embracing that discomfort and maintaining an open and adaptable mind to all that comes their way, be that AI or algorithms. There is an attitude that if these things are inevitable, then we must either find ways of combatting their detrimental effects or exploit their uses to our advantage. 

This might be through incorporating AI in our creative practices – but in ways that bolster new thinking and not replicate old concepts – as the young photographer Salomé Gomis Trezise has been doing. Or by avoiding the confines of the algorithm by intentionally branching away from it, using the search bar to discover creativity as opposed to relying on the feed (as we are hearing from our network), and turning to alternative platforms such as Perfectly Imperfect or Nina Protocol for a more human-curated experience.  

Likewise, the exponential surge of popularity for Reddit amongst young people over the past few years (with the site overtaking TikTok as Britain’s fourth most visited social media platform in January) signals this shift. Built for deep dives into multi-layered rabbit holes, the site epitomes this curious drive and willingness to veer off into niche ‘Subreddits’, purely for the sake of pleasure and not for productivity.

There is also a rising uptake in unusual and niche hobbies such as glass-flower making, Mahjong, plant ID walks, and even Mario Kart events, with young people from across the creative and sporting spectrum uniting under a shared desire to ignite their curiosity – something brands have been picking up on, with the aforementioned Trezise creating a campaign video for Patta featuring a game of pool and Loewe’s work with Mana Kimura-Anderson, AKA the nunchuck princess. 

Having grown up being spoon-fed convenience, young people are looking for a little more friction, a little more depth. We don’t always want the quick answer (as is now provided by the likes of AI overview and short-form content), because sometimes the long route (the route that requires active effort) will lead us somewhere unknown. 

It is because of this that digital archives have been becoming so popular online; internet museums where stories are told with nuance and “lived human experience”, as the founder of online archive Samutaro tells us.

‍“I think for a lot of young people who have grown up inside the infinite scroll where content disappears in 24 hours, trends last a week, and algorithms flatten everything into the same format, archiving feels like resistance to that speed. With my posts, I try to dig deep into cultural meaning and say why this topic mattered, why it has context, and why it deserves to be remembered. 

For me, curiosity has always been more about questions rather than answers. I think when everything can be summarized or generated, what matters is the ability to ask better questions, connect unlikely dots, and notice nuance. That’s where youth culture is shifting. It’s less about having information and more about navigating it. These are the kind of things I’m noticing in the comments, which is driving me to create differently.

‍Young people are exhausted by surface-level consumption. Now, there’s a desire to understand the “why” behind things: the history of a subculture, the evolution of a design movement, the origin of a meme. Archiving turns passive scrolling into active exploration. Instead of chasing virality, I think of it as building a living library: something that rewards attention rather than distraction. The appeal isn’t just nostalgia; it’s meaning-making."

And so within this context (where curiosity is shaping youth culture and the creativity that comes out of that) complexity will thrive. Work that evades categorisation or immediate comprehension. Work that captures the attention, not for three minutes, but for a long and in-depth exploration. Work that directs us elsewhere (be that Reddit, Discord, or online archives) to access deeper secrets. 

As technological advancements push us further away from active engagement and further into our siloes, curiosity becomes our tool to break out of that. Curiosity becomes resistance to convenience. It becomes a form of empowerment; a gift that no machine can ever possess. And it is with curiosity that young people today are stepping into this new frontier, meeting all that is thrown at us with an open and critical mind.