Between the years 2000 and 2010, digital culture was largely defined by viral videosthe emergence of a new type of online video creator and a more general consumption of the internet. But today the trend has changed: experiences have become more personalized and according to interests, viral they moved away from the cliché and there was an explosion of young creators with a personal seal.
In the last five years, new video formats have produced changes in the trends of generation Z, what did he give step one more “personal” pop culture. This implies that young people no longer search for or produce about “what everyone talks about”, but about what interests them and is relevant. Also, they share niche passions in community and don’t pigeonhole memes into one format.
These data come from YouTube Report Trends and Culture 2022, which the platform presented this Thursday during a press conference in which Télam participated. There Karla Agis, manager of Culture and Trends for Canada and Latin America for YouTube, made an “x-ray of this ecosystem.”
Community
YouTube took a look at Gen Z creators and viewers to see how they’re driving the evolution of trends. For the report, he surveyed more than 10 countries and analyzed hundreds of trends to find what stands out in the current pop culture.
Among some of the figures he found that the 85% of Gen Z posted videos onlineand that 65% agree that content that is personally relevant for them it is more important than the content that many other people talk about.
The individual viral videos, such as the famous Edgar falls down, stood out in the past but today are playing a less central role. In the trends, the report indicates, audiences and creators prioritize the moments that matter to them and to their lives. The viral today has a particular interest.
Many young users “leave the cliché behind” and search for topics, even if it’s not from their time. 55% of Generation Z say they consume content that no one else in their immediate circle finds interesting. The category “nostalgia”in which some song or object from the past is revived, is among themes that add more passion, as well as the airplane flight videos and the contents of terror.
Professional fan and fandom
One of the categories the report found is “Community Creativity”. They are groups of people who actively participate in a shared identity or interest online, with increasing influence. They take niche passions and turn them into larger shared experiences.
On YouTube there are communities around everything from choreography, watch collections and fragrance reviews. And also about planes: there are more than 10 billion views of videos about airplanes flying in 2021.
For example, when Storm Eunice hit the UK in February 2022, the TV Creator jerry dyer recorded the planes in Heathrow trying to land in strong winds. The transmission turned viral with almost 250 thousand people watching it live and millions of people watched the replay.
A key media phenomenon of the last five years was the rise of the professional fan. Most of the top YouTube channels are actually people who are hugely passionate about something specific, with a deeper and more nuanced exploration of topics.
What’s happening now, Agis said, is that the communities of creators and engaged viewers themselves are becoming the lens through which we understand pop culture itself. An example is the Motomami Analysis of Jaime Altozano with Rosaliawhere the artist gives her perspective on the technique of her song, legitimizing these spaces of fandom.
The fandom they are communities of fans around a common identity or interest. Before they used to be a consequence of entertainment. but today they are fundamental to the experience of it.
61% of Generation Z, the report cites, describe themselves as big/super fans of someone or something, and in this field stands out the kpop. The growing fan formats include videos on how to start your own K-Pop fan channel, which are racking up millions of views. In fact, K-Pop labels even started releasing these videos as official content.
memes
Produce and consume remixable/mixed/combined content, in the form of memesis an important way that Generation Z and millennials participate in pop culture, Agis described. One of the most popular examples in recent months, the directive cited, is the musical remix of “my baby fiu fiu”. This meme went beyond formats and became a musical remix with versions by dogs, one Andean, one Japanese, an 8-bit ballad and a powerful metal version.
63% of Gen Z followed one or more meme accounts in the last 12 months, and 57% agree that they like it when brands engage in memes.
Multi-format creativity
59% of Gen Z agree that they use short form video apps to discover things that they then watch longer versions of. In this line, Agis reflects that in the future the important trends will arise from creativity which is not restricted to any digital video format or medium.
