In 2023, new social stories among young people are emerging. From the hot discussion of "finding a partner" to the popularity of "**", from the hot discussion of i-people and e-people to the explosion of virtual dialogue applications, with the sharing and discussion on social platforms as the context, these contents have gradually converged into a distinct trend, showing the social preferences, consumption choices and life attitudes of young people who are different from the past, and will also set off a new direction for the tide in 2024.
Recently, based on the new social platform Soul APP, the Just So Soul Research Institute released a survey on "Social Life Trends" for young people, and ** 3817 valid questionnaire results, combined with the content data analysis of the Soul platform, officially released the "2024 Social Trend Insight Report", presenting the new changes that may occur in the fields of pan-social, entertainment, consumption, and life in the future.
In the face of increased mobility and uncertainty, young people today are rebuilding their own order and reshaping their borders with the world. The Just So Soul Research Institute summarizes this proposition as "finding one's own coordinates in social networking", and summarizes the new trends shown in it into ten key words, namely:
Narcissistic romanticism, imagination of the other, "zero sugar" socialization, human-computer interaction, cost-effective life, lazy health, stress relief worship, resistance to weightlessness and restlessness, offline social physical loss and reconstruction of multi-dimensional "neighborhood".
Young people have 2 bosom friends per capita, and "zero sugar" social interaction and human-computer interaction have become new preferences
In 2023, topics such as why the phenomenon of family severance is so popular will frequently appear on hot searches on social platforms, and social avoidance phenomena such as "greeting disorder" and "phobia" have also aroused widespread discussion. Behind this, under the pressure of rapid geographical mobility and fast-paced life, the further atomized individual "offline social physical flow", lack of time, energy and effective path to develop a new relationship in reality.
According to the research data of the Just So Soul Research Institute, the average of contemporary young people is 2 friends, and 24% of young people say that they have no friends who can talk about everything, "a lone ranger". In terms of spending time with friends, young people today spend an average of 8 hours with friends per week25 hours. From the perspective of cities, young people in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen spend the least time with friends, about 794 hours.
It is worth noting that how to solve this friendship dilemma with the decline of traditional offline links such as local ties and blood ties?Data shows that online has become the most important channel for the younger generation to build new relationships, and 45% of young people expand their social networks by meeting people online.
When social links are re-established with a new solution, young people's preferences for social networking are also clearer - "zero sugar" social networking has become a trend. According to a survey by the Just So Soul Research Institute, when faced with the question of "the best state to get along with friends", 54% of young people said that "they are in constant contact, but they also have their own space for solitude", 18% chose "it is most important to connect with each other according to their mood", and only 12 chose the option of "being able to stick together every day".6%。
This means that, unlike the relatively viscous and fuzzy relationship model established based on geography and blood in the past, the younger generation, which emphasizes the sense of individual independence, pays more attention to the sense of boundary and self-space when building friendship. This is also the reason why "finding a partner" continues to be hot. Because of the resonance of a hobby or goal, it becomes a temporary community, assembled according to needs, relaxed, and then collides with the possibility of extending deep social relationships.
On the social side, another important trend is "human-machine interaction". With the continuous breakthrough development of AIGC (refers to the use of artificial intelligence technology to generate content) technology, more and more social and content platforms have launched related products or functions based on this, including the intelligent dialogue robot "AI Gou Dan" launched by Soul, many innovative products and functions in the direction of AI dialogue, virtual companionship, virtual people and other directions, allowing young users who love to try new things to try new ways of interaction in the experience of never getting tired, and "human-computer interaction" is accepted by more and more people, broadening the boundaries of social networking.
According to a report by the Just So Soul Research Institute, in addition to social relationships such as friends, "virtual people, virtual idols" (91%) also gives young people a sense of companionship when they are lonely.
Anti-spiritual internal friction content increased by more than 500% year-on-year, and the concepts of "stress relief worship" and "cost-effective life" are popular
Fast-paced modern life, convenient communication, and complex information, the world is always "disturbing" us, a sense of weightlessness that is passively involved in the vortex, so that "fighting weightlessness and restlessness" (anti-anxiety, internal friction and other negative emotions) has become an ordinary subject that everyone needs to face.
Topics such as how to get rid of internal friction, lying flat or involution have been widely discussed. At the same time, we have observed that more people are taking action on social platforms, for example, through the form of mutual help by sharing their different experiences and feelings, encouraging each other, stopping internal friction, and getting out of emotional difficulties. The data shows that the content of related topics such as anti-mental internal friction on soul will increase by 546% year-on-year in 2023.
In the process of anti-mental internal friction, we also found that the value of social networking and links was further highlighted. According to data from the Just So Soul Research Institute, there are 349% of young people will share their anxieties with friends, 284% of young people will express their anxiety on social platforms, 235% of people will find people who share the same difficulties to communicate and share.
Young people who struggle with negative emotions also urgently need to find an outlet to release their stress. According to the observation of the Just So Soul Research Institute, "stress relief worship" has led to the emergence of many popular social, entertainment, and consumption phenomena.
From the popular "crazy literature" on social platforms to the obsessed with "chasing short dramas", offline "short escapes" are all ways for young people to find ways to relieve stress and release emotions for themselves in a pollution-free and relaxed way.
The Just So Soul Institute also found that young people have also found unique ways to decompress and release emotions – the imagination of others. For example, young people actively seek out spiritual animals such as Mo'er and Capybara, as well as spiritual spokespersons such as Meme Huijun, which is the embodiment of this trend, and when they occasionally withdraw from themselves for "other imagination", they can discover their true selves and gain space to decompress. According to platform data, in 2023, instant content on the topic of "Mo" and capybara on Soul will increase by 2006% and 1300% year-on-year, respectively.
The French philosopher Sartre pointed out in Being and Nothingness that anything other than the "self" can be called the "other", and the "other" is a reference of the "self", and the self can be better determined and known to a certain extent by selecting and establishing the other.
Taking pan-social networking as the starting point, more and more young people have begun to emphasize the concept of "cost-effective life", setting off a discussion of "reverse consumption". Behind these phenomena is the change of the new generation's attitude towards consumer life: not "not to consume", but to face their own real needs with more rational thinking, and bid farewell to "wild consumption". More and more young people are soberly buying, sorting out what they want, and choosing the "right" products and services on this basis.
In addition, for many migrant workers, the fast-paced modern life, the leisure time that is constantly compressed by work, makes fitness and sports a very luxurious thing, with the minimum time and energy cost, the trend of "lazy health" has brought many new possibilities and opportunities in the consumer market.
The data shows that in addition to soaking feet, going to bed early and getting up early and other health regimens (361%), health massage (244%), Baduanjin and other appropriate exercises (134%), buying health products (119%), purchase medical examination** (102%) is also the main effort that everyone has made in the past year for health.
Acknowledging "narcissistic romanticism", more than half of young people said that "taking care of the body" is the best way to love themselves
In 2023, the topic of "re-nurturing yourself" will become popular on social platforms. Behind this topic, there are more and more people who want to "restart their lives". It can be seen that more and more people love themselves more, and "narcissistic romanticism" that emphasizes love for oneself is also becoming a new identity.
According to research data from the Just So Soul Research Institute, young people today have different definitions of the word "narcissism". More than 9 percent have a "non-negative" view of narcissism, of which 23Seven percent of young people have a positive assessment, "Loving yourself is a kind of romance".
The Just So Soul Institute believes that "loving yourself" has become the "anchor" and the most important standard for young people to solve all the problems of boundary when they "re-raise themselves". And about what it means to "love yourself", they say that taking care of your body (555%), be kind to yourself (54.).9%), maintaining good and healthy social relationships (517%) are the three most important manifestations of loving yourself.
Finally, the "reconstructing the multidimensional neighborhood" pointed out by the Just So Soul Institute in the report is an important social trend in 2024.
Anthropologist Xiang Biao once proposed the "disappearance of the neighborhood", describing a trend in modern society, where people are becoming more and more atomized, and the micro-level relationships between people in close proximity, such as communities and communities, are reduced.
But "nearby" is also extremely important, it is the grasp to re-establish a sense of control over life, a space to breathe, and the key to constructing self-coordinates.
It can be seen that whether it is catching up with the big market, city walk or falling in love with the wet market again, behind this year's hot social phenomenon is the efforts of young people to rebuild the neighborhood. For example, on Soul, City Walk Instant Sharing content will increase 100 times year-on-year in 2023.
Moreover, this kind of effort is not only the first, but also in the multi-** era, the online cyberspace also helps young people establish a diverse and in-depth relationship network, creating a scene and space that can interact and communicate, and has become a powerful supplement to the real "nearby".
Socialization is the combing and dialogue of the individual's own spiritual world internally, and the information exchange and emotional feedback necessary for social life externally. Only by understanding young people's social interaction can we better understand young people's attitudes towards life, trendy culture and consumption trends, and how to better cope with the next 2024 and resonate with young people at the same frequency.
The "2024 Social Trend Insight Report" report launched by the Just So Soul Research Institute unveiled a corner of the new social attitude of young people, and the full report content can be found on WeChat***soul app" and "soul social"**As a platform that is loved by young people and has extremely high user stickiness, soul has nearly 30 million monthly active users, of which Generation Z accounts for nearly eighty percent, providing a rich and diverse real ecology for insight into young people's social trends.