2026 in & out: my predictions
My predictions! With a little humor. Take it with a grain of salt, only did this for fun as a little creative exercise, but maybe you agree or wanna write your own?
in:
- Textures and color becoming big after our years-long focus on very smooth slabs and muted surfaces. I think Pantone is so wrong for picking a white tone for 2026! Instead, color theory taking the place of skincare obsession.
- Hosting repair parties for you and your friends. Visible mending aesthetic on clothes.
- Big focus on timelessness as the trends have become too fast to follow or fully monetize.
- Pictures of lived-in places and groups hanging out, instead of just being alone in all your pictures. Pictures become more about the group activity than showing off your looks or clothes; more weight on long-term friendships and showing off that you’re doing offline activities together.
- Small, highly curated and niche personal collections, even companies going back to a core lineup.
- Tech predictions:
- Unfollowing and blocking influencers.
- More switching to Linux.
- More focus on hyperlocal social media via people’s orgs, clubs, areas, cities, etc. having their own servers and retreating there.
- New forms of social media that will try to be a mix of group chat, Notion and (AI-)Pinterest. Not saying this is good, but I could see it happening.
- Apps with an algorithmic feed asking for your mood when opening and then showing content based on the answer.
out:
- Pretending loneliness and isolation is selfcare or wellness, hard boundaries as a personality (“protecting your peace at all costs” etc.), as the real flex will be not being part of the loneliness epidemic.
- The idea that focus is moral.
- Superapps and megabrands that aspire to be everything.
- Reinventing and “rebranding” yourself completely.
- Relying on AI for everything and pushing it into everything. The novelty wears off, the testing people do privately slows down, and they come to their own conclusions about what’s really helpful and what’s bullshit irrespective of what companies promise.
- Passive friendship maintenance via just liking your friend’s posts. It will no longer count as real or sincere to people and they expect more (hopefully).
- Bragging about impulsive or excessive purchases. Everyone’s tired of seeing strangers’ hauls and Klarna debt.
- Trackers for every media consumption (books, movies etc.).
- Matcha and pistachio; I think we will see more roasted or black sesame drinks and sweet potato.
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