gen z is having an identity crisis

0:00 Okay, so we're back with another analysis video, but this one is a little bit more abstract than the other ones where I tell you about the top everyone's wearing, the brand everyone's loving, or the activity everyone's doing together. No, this is abstract, and I'm going to need you to lock in with me when we start to talk about the great identity crisis of 2025 and how it's completely tied to our consumption. So, hold my hand and let's go on this journey together. We are literally a week behind. We're 2 weeks behind. But, what else is new? >> Just a disclaimer for the channel in general, but particularly for this video, we are chronic levels of online, and this particularly is a discussion about TikTok culture, and I just want to make that a blanket statement for

0:45 everything we're going to talk about on here so I don't have to preface every single example with people on TikTok will find this weird, but also if you enjoy this video, make sure to subscribe to the channel, follow me on other socials. Okay, so to start off on this pipeline, I feel like I should describe what's got me thinking about this idea. And there have been a lot of things that I think have tied into this. Again, it's very abstract, so it's not been like a clear this is the example that I've seen, but on TikTok especially, there's been a general demeanor of identity crisis core. Like when I scroll through the platform and I see so many people talking about leveling up, doing the great autumn lock-in, or a 75 hard challenge to completely change their lifestyle. The ChatGPT Devoverse product rebrand meme. What about accessories for April?

1:31 One thought I have was enamel, um, bangles pendants earrings. >> No, we did that 2 years ago. What else? The summer of hobbies everyone's had, the TikTok that sums up going through an absolute existential crisis that apparently hundreds of thousands of people relate to. And yeah, if you take all of those little bit abstract examples, it starts to feel like a pattern. Now, a slightly less direct correlation, but I think a parallel nonetheless, unhinged as it might be, is the Vogue viral article about whether having a boyfriend is cringe or not. And so many people have had takes about this. I've seen every single person I follow have a take about this. But the one I think I agree with most is that this article isn't about rejecting love, but about decentering your relationship from your entire identity and learning

2:17 to pay attention to yourself. >> Having a good relationship is really cool and great. What else? And I don't think what people are saying is that having a boyfriend is I think when we think about it more critically, it's what having a boyfriend can take away from a woman that is yuck if they're a bad partner. And if that and even if they're a good partner, if the woman puts too much importance on the on the partner, it can take away from a woman sometimes. Some women get a boyfriend and then who are you? >> Which very much fits into this identity crisis theme. And that prevailing idea that we need to find out who we are because maybe we feel a bit lost. And my final example to add to the unhinged pile is Mickey's YouTube video that I recently watched about the cool girl myth and how this obsession with having

3:02 the perfect personality, the perfect face, the perfect lifestyle, the perfect effortless je ne sais quoi aura about you is eroding our sense of identity. >> What we desire when we see or we talk about someone who we think is cool girl is we see a sense of identity and a self-image that is very clear and is clear through multiple channels. We find that the person's personality matches their art, matches their face, matches their body, matches their apartment. Everything is this cohesive brand in a way. We want that. Like we intuitively want that. We want to feel like we can define ourselves. And this is the example that I really want to hold onto for a second because in the video, Mickey talks about how for so long social media has had an outside-in approach of having the perfect outfit,

3:49 makeup, lifestyle to convince ourselves and others that we have that same control inside. And I thought that was really interesting and actually really summed up the last few years of online culture. But I've also realized that I'm starting to see and notice the opposite happening and kind of the reverse approach going on increasingly online. And I kind of want to hold that as an anchor point for today's video. So, Mickey talked about the outside-in theory. I want to talk about the inside-out theory, or as I'm calling it, the great personality lock-in of 2025. So, this is what I think's happening and you'll come to understand why I think it's so closely linked to our consumption as I described in the intro. 2025 has been the year that the internet stepped back and realized that we let

4:34 our consumption and our media intake dictate our personalities for too long. That when it came to the start of this year and more of us stepped away from that, we weren't really happy with what was left. This year saw so many people getting offline, quitting apps, talking at least about deleting social media on the very apps they're planning to leave. And for the people that follow through on that plan, in the absence of the noise from social media once you do take a step back, I think a lot of people realize that they're not really sure who they are anymore outside of scrolling and the collective internet hive mind. >> I am so over selling the cool girl. I'm so over being the cool girl. I'm so over like this is what you need to either think, have, live, act. This is what you need to be in order to be this cool girl

5:24 because not only is it so rooted in capitalism and selling you something, I am totally manipulated myself to believe that everyone I follow on social media, everything I own, like all of these things were my own decision and like based out of my own individuality. But like no matter what, if my screen time and my if I'm going over like an hour scrolling on TikTok, like my decisions are totally not my own and are being decided for me. Now, maybe this is more drastic for certain generations than it was for others. For example, I'm Gen Z, I grew up largely on the internet, and I don't really remember a time when I wasn't online to form my own personality. And I think that makes such a difference, and I think it's why Gen Z in particular are kind of the leaders of

6:09 this identity crisis that I'm talking about. If you never had the chance to know who you are without the internet, then taking the internet away does become kind of scary. And I think that's why as being online has become a desirable identity for people, we've seen this parallel rush to go and join or start a community, have a third space, have a hobby, find a life outside of our phones because the silence after all of that noise is terrifying and lonely. But Oscar Wilde said that if you know exactly what you want to be in life, a teacher or a grocer or a judge or a soldier, you will become it. That is your punishment. Actually not knowing what you want to be, reinventing yourself every morning, not being a noun but being a verb, being moving in life, not being fixed in life is a privilege, even though it's a difficult one sometimes. So, don't don't feel bad

6:55 about not knowing. I think it's the most wonderful thing to be open, be a permanent student if you can in in the mind. And okay, yeah, I mentioned we're going to be talking chronic levels of online, but if we have a reality check for a moment, having an identity crisis in your 20s, your 30s, your teenage years, anytime in your life is not uncommon. But I also do think it's logical to assume that online culture is leading to an increased amount of people feeling like this. Just like studies show, it's also increasing other mental health problems. I mean, how could we not be confused when we've gone from constantly selling ourselves and buying others online to then being told put the phone down and figure out who you are. And I do want to talk about how selling yourself online and others selling themselves online has contributed to

7:40 this identity crisis for a second because social media rewards boxes that you can fit yourself into. And the algorithm and the entire following each other culture rewards being very easily identifiable in who you are. And I think that's had a big impact on our sense of identity if you've become so accustomed to putting yourself in a box so that you can then write that in your Instagram bio, and whoever stumbles upon your profile will know instantly who you are. The internet loves extremes, like I said in another video, but it also loves clearly identified labels. The algorithm rewards it. Like how a lot of YouTubers, if they have a secondary interest other than what they're known for, will typically start a second channel on YouTube because it's known that the

8:26 algorithm doesn't really respond to a random topic popping up on your channel when you're known for something else. We've all kind of been accidentally conditioned to perfect an elevator pitch about ourselves and who we are, what we like, how we can help other people that can fit into the first 10 seconds of a TikTok before someone's attention span leaves them. But of course, that's not actually defining of who we are, and it doesn't leave us fulfilled when we turn those phones off and are left with clearly defined labels that don't actually encompass a whole human being. I think this longingness to define ourselves, to have a very clear aesthetic, to have a very clear interest is what's led to a breakdown in authenticity for communities and identities online. I mean, in the past, way back before social media, having a niche, having a community didn't used to

9:13 just be having a label, having an aesthetic that you could then post with. Typically, those things were named after having a hobby, or a political stance, or a personality trait. But I feel like that was all reversed after TikTok came in and made things into shoppable aesthetics that you simply had to have the right clothes for to be part of. When I studied media in college, we looked at how the media treated British subcultures. So, whether that was the teddy boys, mods, um, the skinheads. They had their names after they had personality, after they had social and political views aligned with each other, but it wasn't just this name attached to this pretty aesthetic look. Clean girl aesthetic, quiet

9:58 luxury, cold girl winter, like all of these things are driven and led by white women. And then what it means is it's going to drive our consumerism, it's going to drive capitalism, make us want to acquire all these products for this look that doesn't have a statement, doesn't have a personality attached to it. >> TikTok made it all about the aesthetic, which you would then tie in some surface level defining characteristics to, like brands you like in that group, or the kind of breakfast you eat, which becomes even more interesting when you tie that into the great trend fatigue of 2025 and people not really looking for cause and aesthetics online. I mean, I for one can't name many from this year, which

10:45 could be the reason, and I'm not really exaggerating when I say this, that we could be looking at generational identity crisis as we start to decenter trends from social media, as we start to decenter social media from our lives. And that's where this inside out theory comes into play. Because of what social media has been rewarding lately, the idea of getting offline, turning off your phone, having a community, we're seeing more people put inside stuff first. And what we're wearing or what we're buying is becoming secondary or background stuff. No, the focus is more about how to talk to people properly, what kind of hobbies you should be having, what you're teaching yourself recently, and what's been interesting you, and your niche topic that you could go on about for hours. The emphasis is no longer about visual aesthetic, but

11:31 intellectual, physical, and clothes that either functional to those identities or not really that important at all. A wave of almost utilitarian fashion, if you will. It kind of makes me wonder if maybe this is why we're starting to see a new breed of influencer, and we're starting to see fashion brands pivot their marketing strategies. And I've definitely started to notice this pivot when I've been scrolling online. Instead of seeing so many shopping influencers doing hauls on my For You page, I'm seeing more intellectual content being delivered whilst people are doing their makeup. I'm seeing brands partnering with writers, chess players, economists, sports stars. And actually my main source for this thought was a Substack article I've read called The Rise of the expert influencer. My For You page is now filled with girls who know things, girls with reputable careers, degrees,

12:17 opinions, niche hobbies, interesting ideas, and an ability to explain, importantly, without condescending. And there's another quote from this article that explains it even deeper that I think really highlights this distinction here, kind of defining the expert influencer, I guess. The woman who knows something, who teaches, who distills, who offers ideas, not just images. Influence, once rooted in access, is now being redefined by insight. We're still watching the girl with the best taste, but now her taste goes beyond style and lifestyle, but into the crevices of her mind and thoughts. And if we link this back to the entire idea for this video, the identity crisis and the shift we're seeing on TikTok and all of those examples I mentioned, can we assume that these influencers are becoming popular because they're offering a new kind of

13:02 currency, not just information that can be absorbed, but inspiration as to what we, the viewer, want to sound like and come across as online, i.e. smart, hot, and well-read, able to talk about something other than her favorite brand and share something other than a discount code. However, we have to acknowledge the irony of that last point, because as much as this new breed of influencer does have a real job, does have good information to share, they're still trying to influence us. And to do that, they're building a brand around their identity that can be packaged up and neatly sold to us in digestible videos. Because even when we're critiquing social media and critiquing our lack of substance online, we still have to cater to an algorithm, which kind of leads me on to the irony of this cultural trend and whether it can exist

13:49 outside social media, whether this is a critique about our identities online or if it's just more marketing to others. And what do I mean by that? Well, for one thing, people on TikTok are obsessed with trying to tell others that their life is together. 5:00 a.m. morning routines and optimization tricks and a sense of productivity in everything you're doing. Clean girl labels and hot girl habits that anyone can pick up. The culture of selling yourself online has led us to talk about ourselves like we're brands. And if we're not happy with how our life is going, then we talk about rebranding. Because social media has turned everything into consumable terms, and we're basically conditioned to never stop marketing ourselves. Like how right now having a weird hobby or a hyperfixation is kind of cool. But even if it's on the wrong side of weird and TikTok can't label it as cool, it's not

14:36 cringe, you're niche, you're not for everyone. And I think this ties into another topic that I've spoken about on the channel recently about gatekeeping and exclusivity and how they're becoming the new normal on social media. Because as people look inside out and center their personalities on the things they're doing, the things they like, rather than what they shop, I think that's going to naturally create more niche pockets on the internet because shopping someone's personality is a little bit harder than shopping the exact jacket they're wearing. And in turn, that's going to kind of erode that collective hive mind of the internet that we've become so accustomed to. And what this will mean for influencer marketing, I'm not really sure because it's definitely a less shoppable form of content, more of a vague influence about your life and your hobbies and your personality, but kind of still perfectly

15:23 marketable to millions of people because you're selling lost people the dream of identity rather than the perfect autumn coat. I hope all of that made sense. I told you this was a little bit out there, but I think that's all of my thoughts on the matter right now. It does kind of feel like a spiderweb of topics that have vague links together right now, and I might come back to this topic in the future, especially once I hear your guys' thoughts on the matter. But I kind of like that. I hate doing a conclusion for a video when I'm talking about a trend that's developing, when I'm talking about social media that never stops, and to end it would feel like ending a conversation early. So maybe we pick this back up in another video, or maybe you guys continue it in the comments. I'm not sure, but I hope you enjoyed this ramble, and I hope you subscribe to the channel if you haven't already, and I hope you have a good day.

16:10 All right, bye, besties.