Play First: Curiosity as resistance to convenience culture
How Gen Z are applying a childlike curiosity to the way they are thinking, discovering and connecting in 2026
After years of maintaining a hyper-controlled and polished aesthetic online, a persona that has undoubtedly leaked into our offline lives (with many pointing to the lack of dancing in nightclubs as evidence of social media’s impact on our self-consciousness), Gen Z are yearning for a more fun and playful experience of life. One where we are allowed to show the process to perfection (mistakes and bad choices included), without fear of being perceived.
Because, as we discussed in ‘The Slow Revolution’, it’s in the process that meaning is found. And with convenience culture increasingly cutting that journey out for us, there is a greater desire to reconnect with it. After all, what is perfection if it can be achieved at the click of a button? What value does it hold anymore?
As our research into ‘The Future of Cool’ found, one of the ways in which Gen Z are reconnecting with this journey is through curiosity. And specifically a childlike curiosity that favours whimsey, experimentation and openness. Reverting to a state of intrigue and excitement that comes with early age, asking ‘why’ of everything, absorbing as much as we can, and trying new things without self-judgement.
With the world changing so rapidly, and often in ways that seem scary or destructive, young people are embracing that discomfort and maintaining an open and adaptable mind to all that comes their way, be that AI or algorithms. There is an attitude that if these things are inevitable, then we must either find ways of combatting their detrimental effects or exploit their uses to our advantage.
This might be through incorporating AI in our creative practices – but in ways that bolster new thinking and not replicate old concepts – as the young photographer Salomé Gomis Trezise has been doing. Or by avoiding the confines of the algorithm by intentionally branching away from it, using the search bar to discover creativity as opposed to relying on the feed (as we are hearing from our network), and turning to alternative platforms such as Perfectly Imperfect, Nina Protocol or Reddit (which is now more popular than TikTok amongst young people) for deeper, more human-centred experiences, designed to spark deep dives into multi-layered rabbit holes.
There is also a rising uptake in unusual and niche hobbies such as glass-flower making, Mahjong, plant ID walks, and even Mario Kart events, with young people from across the creative and sporting spectrum uniting under a shared desire to ignite their curiosity – something brands have been picking up on, with the aforementioned Trezise creating a campaign video for Patta featuring a game of pool and Loewe’s work with Mana Kimura-Anderson, AKA the nunchuck princess.
Having grown up being spoon-fed convenience, young people are looking for a little more friction, a little more depth. We don’t always want the quick answer (as is now provided by the likes of AI overview and short-form content), because sometimes the long route (the route that requires active effort) will lead us somewhere unknown.
It is because of this that digital archives have been becoming so popular online; internet museums where stories are told with nuance and “lived human experience”, as the founder of online archive Samutaro tells us.
“For me, curiosity has always been more about questions rather than answers. I think when everything can be summarised or generated, what matters is the ability to ask better questions, connect unlikely dots, and notice nuance. That’s where youth culture is shifting. It’s less about having information and more about navigating it. These are the kind of things I’m noticing in the comments, which is driving me to create differently.”
“Young people are exhausted by surface-level consumption. Now, there’s a desire to understand the “why” behind things: the history of a subculture, the evolution of a design movement, the origin of a meme. Archiving turns passive scrolling into active exploration. Instead of chasing virality, I think of it as building a living library: something that rewards attention rather than distraction. The appeal isn’t just nostalgia; it’s meaning-making.”
And so within this context (where curiosity is shaping youth culture and the creativity that comes out of that) complexity will thrive. Work that evades categorisation or immediate comprehension. Work that captures the attention, not for three minutes, but for a long and in-depth exploration. Work that directs us elsewhere (be that Reddit, Discord, or online archives) to access deeper secrets.
As technological advancements push us further away from active engagement and further into our siloes, curiosity becomes our tool to break out of that. Curiosity becomes resistance to convenience. It becomes a form of empowerment; a gift that no machine can ever possess. And it is with curiosity that young people today are stepping into this new frontier, meeting all that is thrown at us with an open and critical mind.
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