"Look, I know I'm not particularly young anymore. I'm very much a millennial, which apparently means I spend my time rock climbing, talking about Pokémon and using the word "hashtag". But nothing has made me feel older in recent months than YouTube's 2025 Culture and Trends report. This year's report describes a "maximalist moment shaping our culture", and explores how today's teens are given the "desire, tools, and distribution to make the content they want to see", which has led to a new era of what YouTube describes as "Creative Maximalism"."
"YouTube describes Creative Maximalism as being centered around four main pillars: Audio/Visual Complexity: Densely layered information and faster-paced editing. Narrative Co-creation: Public-generated, massive, decentralised entertainment properties with immense casts of characters and storylines. Internet-Referential: Humour and ideas built on layers of online inside jokes. Globally Influenced: A seamless blend of cultural references from around the world In other words, YouTube is describing exactly why modern content is giving me whiplash. It's fast, it's loud, it's busy, and it's full of in-jokes I don't get."
"Even the design of YouTube's report captures the aesthetic - loud, low-fi, colourful and brash. And it's filled with stats that reveal just how chronically online today's teens are. 58% of 14- to 24-year-olds agree that their sense of humour has been shaped by the internet, 60% of 14- to 24-year-olds agree that they've picked up habits, traditions, or rituals from online creators, and 59% of 14- to 24-year-olds agree that their sense of personal style has been influenced by content they've seen online."
Creative Maximalism centers on audio/visual complexity, narrative co-creation, internet-referential humor, and global cultural blending. Content features densely layered information, faster editing, and heavy reliance on online in-jokes. Teens possess the tools and distribution to co-create expansive, decentralized entertainment with large casts and evolving storylines. Aesthetic shifts favor loud, low-fi, colourful, and brash presentation styles that accelerate attention cycles. Large shares of 14- to 24-year-olds report internet-shaped humor (58%), adoption of creator-originated habits and rituals (60%), and influence on personal style (59%). Short-form formats and teen-driven culture amplify rapid, busy, cross-cultural content.
Read at Creative Bloq
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