#3 Welcome to Your Villain Era
Dark mode, going offline, and nihilism are the big trends of 2025. But how does 'villain shit' redefine our cultural landscape from here?
It’s hard to not feel like 2025 is the year that the lights are going out. Have you noticed that everything’s gotten a little… darker? Sure, the backdrop of economic, political and cultural uncertainty will always put the dimmer switch on, but a quick glance at aesthetics and cultural signifiers suggests we’re entering a far more muted and introspective era.
This week, I’ve been reading some truly wonderful pieces from some of the best cultural strategists out there right now. They’ve attempted to unravel what has been a truly wild start to the year. One idea that stuck with me is Edmond Lau’s notion of ‘dark mode.’ Lau argues that the last 15 years have been characterised by a cultural pursuit of ‘light mode’, a focus on positivity and togetherness. But now, the vibe has shifted. Not only are we nostalgic for modernity, he posits, but we’re also leaning into its vices, not its virtues, a reflection of our collective embrace of nihilism.
Lau’s perspective unlocked a thought I’ve been toying with: that our 20-year nostalgia cycle, which recently dredged up Y2K culture, has pivoted from the neon brightness of nu-rave and the mob-wife aesthetics of indie sleaze to a strange blend of recession, credit-crunch-core, and how the wealthy interpreted it.
For all intents and purposes, our current psyche isn’t far removed from the mid-2000s. In Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year, the opening joke compared 2004 to today with a tongue-in-cheek observation: good to know there are no terrible wars, confused governments, or economic chaos in 2024. They say history is doomed to repeat itself, but did I expect it to happen so quickly. I think they also say, “same shit, different decade”.
What we wear and what we deem ‘cool’ will always reflect the socio-economic backdrop. It’s telling that one of 2025’s top trend predictions, the shift to ‘basic’, directly mirrors broader cultural behaviours. The death knell of the micro-trend cycle in 2024 marked the end of a consumption-driven behaviour that moved so quickly it left us drowning in mismatched, era-blended outfits with no stamp of personal style. Micro-trends thrived because platforms like TikTok made fashion knowledge, and therefore cultural access, available to the masses. But as every corner of style became commodified, exclusivity (and with it, coolness) evaporated. Tastemakers wanted the cultural signifiers back and began to divert trends to reclaim their capital.
Fashion has always been a status symbol, but with everyone able to recognise the allure of a Margiela Tabi, and buy a knock-off on Temu, the magic faded. To counter this, trendsetters are gravitating toward aesthetics that are harder to replicate wholesale, such as quiet luxury and normcore, due to their dependence on the un-dupe-able realm of personal taste. While gatekeeping has long been vilified, in this context, it’s reframed as a kind of knowledge preservation. You can shortcut surface-level trends, but you can’t skim the deep, communal lore of subcultures. With this shift, I hope to see a resurgence of tribes and communities, a much-needed antidote to the blancmange of creativity, performative passions, and loss of personal identity that defined the era of micro-trends. Bring back the bloody goths, for a uniform society is a malleable one.
The current political backdrop, no matter where you stand, reflects this recurring idea of ‘dark mode.’ Campaigns built on hope and radical change have taken a back seat, replaced by narratives rooted in business interests and personal agendas. In 2024, the year 50% of the world voted, the flattening of culture ironically drove us further toward individualism. When everything looks the same, we retreat into ourselves – prioritising selfish pursuits over collective responsibility.
This shift could be seen as the final stage of late-stage capitalism, leaving us with two options: rubble or revolt. And with rising self-interest, a lack of collective accountability, and media platforms pandering to policymakers, we seem to be heading toward the former. Last year, I wrote a trends piece titled Operation Nihilism, highlighting how many, especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha, are disillusioned after being told they were the saviours set to clean the mess by previous generations. Their philosophy can be summed up as: if nothing matters, then nothing matters. A rising tide of nihilism clashing with growing individualism creates the perfect storm for what I call ‘villain shit.’
Beyond aesthetics and politics, this is playing out in how brands and individuals seek offline connection. Eugene Healey, aka @EugeneBrandStrat, recently posted about the commodification of ‘offline mode,’ using Apple’s privacy strategy as a case study. Apple positions privacy as a status symbol, selling the idea that their customers can transcend the data-driven product pushes that dominate online life. It’s a subtle rejection of the ‘always on’ culture the internet has cultivated, the idea that we plug into the matrix as a means of survival and connection rather than any actual want.
This sentiment extends to a shift social behaviour too – that being overt and obvious is not cool.
From the resurgence of analogue products – iPod Nanos, digital cameras in clubs, burner phones, to the rise of anonymous, text-based platforms like Threads, Bluesky, and Discord, we’re seeing a return to early-2000s recession-core, a world where social relied heavily on blogs and chatrooms. A few years ago, when we were opining over the MeTaVeRsE, we spoke heavily about multiple personas shapeshifting online. That has happened, just not in the cloak and daggers, avatar ridden way we anticipated. It’s more just shitposting across the fediverse.
The ‘less is more’ approach also reflects in consumer engagement, with lurking overtaking posting. With that, views are becoming more valuable than likes, and we’re shifting how we measure success in a more passive era. For many, this has opened up the door to IRL connections, behaviours consumers are flooding to as further evidence that being ‘online’ isn’t what it once was. Brand activations and community groups saw an upswing in 2024, but we’re also seeing a shift back to some of those more ‘old school’ modes as well. Voice notes and phone calls have surged in popularity, which is another rejection of over-curation and filtering. One such trend “Waffle Wednesdays”, weekly voicenotes between friends to update them on your life, has made waves in the UK. I’ve implemented it with some friends from university and instantly feel more connected to them in a way I haven’t really felt in years. It’s transformative in its simplicity.
All of this – dark mode, offline, nihilism – feeds into the ‘villain shit’ ethos: a cultural, social, and political shift towards saying “fuck it” and doing whatever you want. Moya Lothian-McLean captured this perfectly in her Substack “The Path of Least Resistance”, exploring how we’re collectively choosing the easier, less challenging route in life. But if everyone bows to convenience, what happens to the world we live in?
We’re mirroring the early 2000s, but this time the stakes are higher. Our Y2K nostalgia has moved to its post-recession realness phase. Wealthy aesthetics like quiet luxury have resurfaced, and the rejection of brashness signals a desire for privacy as a status symbol. Our gravitation toward IRL connection and cultural gatekeeping reflects a deeper yearning: to root influence in personal connection rather than an internet connection.
As the curtain falls on this era of excess and performative displays, we’re standing on the brink of a new cultural landscape. Fashion, once a frivolous escape, now mirrors our societal reckoning – a quiet defiance against chaos. Restraint and authenticity are becoming acts of agency, carving stability in a world increasingly beyond our control. And while the future remains shrouded in uncertainty, there’s comfort in knowing that even in the darkest times, the human spirit will seek its light – if only we’re willing to look for it.
SIM CITY: Tales from the Algorithm is a Substack all about the internet, social media, and the cultural anthropology of the digital world. Subscribe for more 😇
I would like to thank and cite the following sources of inspiration for this article this week, and heartily encourage a follow to:
The Dark Mode Shift by Edmond Lau
The Weekly Echo Chamber: Dazed Predicts the Year Ahead by Isobel Farmiloe
Really nailed something I think we’ve all been sensing but couldn’t quite put into words. Curious (and unnerved) to see where this shift takes us. Thanks for sharing!