We Are Social report highlights hedonism, conscious consumerism and gate-keeping on social in 2025 edition of Think Forward

Two- thirds of marketers have increased messaging around sustainability in social content 2024, and 59% admit to risk-taking, according to a new report from global socially-led agency We Are Social.

Think Forward 2025: The Liveable Web predicts the key trends that will shape social media over the next year. Compiled by We Are Social’s Cultural Insights team and supported by a survey of 500 global marketing decision-makers, it identifies backlash against a treadmill of micro-trends, notifications and noise online. It describes how people are pushing back against the prevailing culture of “more” – more content, faster trend cycles, ever higher, more unattainable goals – to find new modes of joy online.

Here are the five key trends playing out across The Liveable Web right now.

Primal Renaissance: After years of cultural sanitisation and emotional suppression, 2024 saw a return to rawness, gore, sleaze and hedonism – the social landscape is embracing messiness again. Think Forward states that 59% of marketers took risks in the last year such as partnering with an unusual or divisive creator or making content that was anticipated to provoke backlash; 98% of these reported a successful or neutral outcome. In an example of leaning into indie sleaze and celebrating the messiness of rave culture, H&M collaborated on a collection with queen of the primal renaissance, Charlie XCX.

Low-stakes social: Online spaces have been reclaimed as a place for escape and release. A new, more relaxed internet is emerging, with an emphasis on levity and kindness of the internet’s perceived early ‘00s “peak.” Take the less-is-more approach on Marc Jacobs’ TikTok – the fashion lynchpin has ceded creative control, allowing creators and micro-influencers to pepper their feed with fun, small-scale content.

Intentional consumerism: Social status used to be linked to how much money someone could spend. Now, though, a new wave of social users who value sustainability over splashing the cash are offering up a counter-narrative. Brands recognise this, and 66% of marketers have increased ethical and/or sustainability messaging in their social content in 2024 vs last year. E.l.f. Cosmetics have eased off pressurising consumers to buy in favour of content, and instead refocused on the happiness their cosmetics offer, leaning into joy-giving behaviours and rituals associated with their products. 

Modern Mythmaking: Creator-led content now leads the way in responding to and shaping popular culture. The result is an Easter egg web in which audiences are digging deeper into entertainment. For their AW drop, clothing brand Peachy Den worked with influencer Olivia Neill and director Jake Erland to meticulously recreate a scene from iconic film The Devil Wears Prada, with fans quick to decode the video’s references and praise its attention to detail.

New Intimacies: 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. Marketers are responding by creating intimate experiences – 61% of global marketers use gate-keeping around their content, such as customer-only groups or closed social channels. REFY – creators of Vegan & Cruelty-Free Makeup – have stopped running influencer trips to promote their brand, offering community bonding trips for friends instead.

The survey also identified a learning gap for marketers when it comes to understanding internet culture; despite shitposting, sludge and slop content becoming increasingly prolific online in 2024, the majority of those questioned – 83% for sludge and slop and 67% for shitposting – have no idea what the terms mean.

Mobbie Nazir, We Are Social’s global chief strategy officer said: “We know that a lot of people feel overwhelmed by their online experiences today; even spending time on social can be exhausting at times. That’s why it’s been so encouraging to see the emergence of ‘The Liveable Web’ as a theme this year – separating joy from progress and prioritising slower consumption. We also see more audiences actively seeking out more raw emotion and less sanitisation; this in itself is a creative gift to marketers everywhere – particularly those willing to take a few risks.”

Paul Greenwood, global head of research & insight at We Are Social said: “Think Forward 2025’s predictions about the direction of social content highlights some really exciting trends for the creative minds in our industry. We can see that joy is creeping back into social, and this offers huge opportunities to the brands who are willing to lean into this. However, it’s clear from the survey responses that marketers are still falling behind when it comes to the vernacular of the online world – to really understand the fast moving and complex social, you have to be embedded in it.”

Download the full report now on We Are Social’s website.

Source: We Are Social

  Agency, Marketing, Report, Research, Think Forward, We Are Social