Gen Z & the Anti-Aesthetic in Media
(Originally written in 2020)
As a young Millennial that just falls outside categorization as an old Gen Z, I am fascinated by the early effects of the influence of this youngest generation. A push toward “anti-aesthetic”. A rejection of click-bait. A skepticism toward brands’ and influencers’ perfectly polished Instagram feeds. Though Gen Z has barely entered the workforce, we already see the beginnings of deep shifts in media as we know it. Millennials gave us influencers, flawlessness, seamless use of digital platforms to craft tangible brand identities. Gen Z isn’t buying it. They grew up with social media perfectionism and fake news, and they know how to pick and choose what information they will absorb, and how to block out the white noise. What does this mean for the media business?
Gen Z’s appetite for authenticity will cause the already merging digital world and physical world to further integrate. Brands who have cultivated their identities online are, more and more, having to creatively find ways to introduce experiences IRL (in real life) that can, 1) serve as a corporeal opportunity to connect with consumers, and 2) be used as fodder for content to be shared online.
Outdoor Voices is one of my favorite examples of a brand successfully integrating experiential marketing with their digital presence. Outdoor Voices is an athletic apparel startup headquartered in Austin, Texas (my hometown). Not only do they offer pop-up workout events at college campuses and popular recreational areas, but they also have a weekly running club for employees and consumers alike. Customers flock to these brand experiences, which strengthen their relationship with Outdoor Voices. Customers share videos and photos to their Instagram stories during the events, and post to their feed after the fact. Outdoor Voices can capitalize on the consumer-shared content, but they also are able to create their own content that can be shared across digital and traditional platforms.
For other brands, Gen Z’s influence manifests in a different manner. Gen Z prioritizes honest self-expression, which gave rise in the past several years to the “finsta” phenomenon — private instagram accounts shared only with a select group of close friends, where users don’t feel the pressure of likes, views, comments, and followers. This past May, Instagram announced that it would begin experimenting with hiding the Like counter. For consumers, this could mean less social comparison and more authentic content creation. For influencers, this loss of a vanity metric means that they’ll have to provide meaningful actionable metrics when partnering with brands. For brands using Instagram, they’ll have to provide higher quality content that pulls consumers in with emotional appeals.
Youth countercultures have always, and will always give rise to new social norms. We are in the beginning stages of seeing a new generation changing the world around them. More than ever before, these changes will affect digital media. If Millennials made online content what it is, then Gen Z will be the ones to perfect it.
