Parallel Reality: People are tired of glamorous social media content
Glamorous content is no longer of interest to Russians. According to surveys, the lives of three quarters of our compatriots are not like those shown in beautiful videos. Therefore, people prefer scenes of ordinary village life, everyday humor and self-irony to unpacking expensive goods and virtual tours of luxury hotels. Why our brain rejects beautiful pictures and which bloggers don't irritate subscribers — in the Izvestia article.
What is Natcheral?
The trend towards "natural", that is, vital, everyday, unpolished content, is firmly entrenched in social networks, Vladislav Obushinsky, a public representative of the Pressindex analytical agency, confirms to Izvestia.
"Gloss and glamour are no longer the absolute standard of blogging: live content has already caught up with them in terms of engagement, and in some formats it has overtaken them," he comments. — The audience is ready to accept an imperfect picture, a household background, and an imperfect appearance when they see recognizable circumstances and honest emotion.
The agency explained that glitz and glamour dominated social media from about the early 2010s to the end of the decade. The first signs of a turn towards a simple life without glitter and retouching appeared in 2018-2019, along with the fashion for "new sincerity", the rejection of filters and the discussion of not only successes but also failures.
Elizaveta Kozhushko, a producer of video content and social networks at the Russian video editor Movavika Video, adds that over the past 15 years, users have witnessed several stages of how people show their lives on social networks.
— In the late noughties and early tenths, that is, in the heyday of VKontakte, the content was generally more sincere: people shared simple, lively moments, painted on each other's walls, wished good morning, etc. And with the development of foreign social platforms and their advertising tools, the "perfect picture" has become increasingly popular, says a representative of the video editor.
When social networks became not just a virtual place for dating and communication, but a full—fledged promotion tool, profiles turned into storefronts, and personal blogs into advertising platforms, the editorial interlocutor notes. Gloss quickly tired the audience with unattainable standards — the gap between gloss and real life turned out to be obvious.
According to experts, the pandemic has become a turning point in the video format. In 2020, the bloggers who were locked up began to show everyday life, family, anxiety and everyday difficulties, but they were not going to do it without embellishment yet.
— On the one hand, the pandemic has given a powerful impetus to the trend for a "new sincerity": front-facing camera videos, household content, stories of failures. On the other hand, the status demonstration has not disappeared. In the 2020s, this is "Quiet Luxury," where status is translated not through flashy logos, but through context: expensive fabrics, luxurious locations, and "random" shots that require long preparation and work, says Kozhushko.
Society reacted accordingly: in 2022-2023, according to Obushinsky, massive deinfluencing arose — criticism of unnecessary purchases, expensive unpacking and imposed consumption. By 2024-2026, naturalness has turned from a separate trend into one of the main formats of blogging, the Izvestia interlocutor explains. In the agency, the rejection of glossy reality is also associated with a crisis of trust.
— The audience has too often seen how the demonstration of luxury cars, brands and travel became the backdrop for selling courses, dubious income schemes and promises of quick success. After the high-profile stories surrounding the infobusiness, ostentatious wealth was no longer automatically perceived as proof of competence, and for some it became a red flag," he says.
In photo content, the demand for sincerity manifested itself through the renaissance of old digital soap dishes and film cameras, Kozhushko adds. The authors are attracted by the ability of such devices to capture reality with slight imperfections.
— Unlike a smartphone, where dozens of takes are taken for the sake of an "aesthetic" frame, and then hours are spent retouching and processing, a film camera makes it impossible to infinitely improve the picture. You just seize the moment for what it is and accept the result. Those who do not have retrophotographs simulate this effect on smartphones using applications, applying retro filters, glare and noise to the photo," the editorial interlocutor gives an example.
According to her, users are tired of excessive retouching and color correction, perfect interiors and staged shots.
— According to our research, when working with videos, the authors in 50% of cases abandon manual settings in favor of retro filters that mimic the effect of an old film. Probably, viewers and authors increasingly consider visual "roughness" to be a sign of sincerity, she says.
A real person
The unattainable influencers have been replaced by the "own man" type, experts emphasize. Increasingly, pensioners, summer residents, teachers, office workers, and ordinary parents are in the spotlight. In short, those are the people who really belong to the real social circle of the majority of Russians. They share with the audience the moments of their lives, not a beautiful picture divorced from reality. And users are more interested in watching soothing videos from the garden, learning homemade recipes or nostalgic for childhood with the author.
According to the interlocutors of the editorial board, the new trend was especially vividly picked up by millennials. They warmly shoot videos about their humble way of life from the nineties and noughties.
— Short videos with parental catchphrases (for example, "Get out of the water, your lips are already blue", "At the pace of the waltz!", etc.) or posts with grandma's compote and carpet are popular precisely because they strike into the cultural codes common to boomers, millennials, and zoomers, — says Elizaveta Kozhushko. — The main advantage of such blogs is the small distance between the author and the audience. In these simple and sincere characters, the viewer recognizes himself or his loved ones.
The new hero is recognizable and self—mocking, adds Vladislav Obushinsky. He works, makes mistakes, gets tired, remembers awkward stories, shows parents, children, pets, and doesn't try to look like a winner in every situation. He doesn't have a collection of expensive bags, but he has character, business and a distinctive language, the expert lists.
— Hence the popularity of videos about poor childhood, parental phrases, school food, old furniture and things that "can not be thrown away, because they will still be useful." This is a collectively recognizable experience that allows the viewer to say, "It was exactly the same for us," the agency explains.
The editorial interlocutor draws attention to the simultaneous increase in fatigue from blogs in which relationships are presented as a financial transaction: expensive gifts before the start of a relationship, fan competition, conspicuous consumption and living at someone else's expense.
"Such content still garners views due to conflict, but it is increasingly less often perceived as an attractive model of life and relationships, as can be seen from the user responses at the bottom of the post," he says.
Users don't need regular signs of someone else's well-being, but lively emotions and sincere relationships that can be trusted, explains Obushinsky.
— Open polls confirm this shift. About three—quarters of Russians say that their lives are not like the ones shown in advertisements, and about two-thirds prefer to see ordinary people in the videos rather than celebrities, says the expert. — In other words, natural content today is no longer a counterculture or a denial of a beautiful frame. This is an independent mass way of displaying life on social networks, based on recognition, self-irony and trust.
Rustic content
Elizaveta Kozhushko notes that, according to a study by VKontakte and LiveDune, videos about rural life, inside stories about different professions and travel are now among the leaders of VK Clips. The interest in the topic of nature and life outside the city has grown the most — such videos collect millions of views.
— Videos from rural areas are rapidly gaining popularity on social networks: life in the provinces, working in the garden, cooking in a Russian oven. This does not mean that content from expensive resorts like villas in the Maldives has ceased to be in demand — it still finds its audience. However, today such stories successfully compete with videos about the simple joys of rural life. The audience is increasingly responding to stories about nature, peaceful lifestyle and traditional lifestyle," says Elizaveta Kozhushko.
Russians also actively film and watch videos about traveling around the country with interest. Dagestan, North Ossetia, Altai and Sochi are among the top destinations. The trend towards domestic tourism is only getting stronger thanks to such content.
In the video format, a new trend is revealed through a demonstration of vulnerability and self-irony, the editorial interlocutor emphasizes. The authors of aesthetic profiles are increasingly making fun of themselves by launching the headings "Social Networks vs Reality". Kozhushko gives popular examples of this category:
— chaotic GRWM (Get Ready With Me): instead of a perfect morning wake-up, bloggers show how they overslept, gathered in a hurry, spilled coffee on themselves, or showed their face without filters and makeup;
— unsuccessful takes: the authors are less likely to cut failed shots, reservations or funny moments during filming, turning them into the main feature of the video.
According to the editorial's interlocutor, a well-groomed picture is less likely to be included in the recommendations. Users even laugh at videos that look too glossy or unnatural, preferring lively, spontaneous content.
"Content authors have become more active in adhering to the principle of "being themselves," realizing that the audience is tired of unattainable ideals and is much more willing to like and trust those who are not afraid to seem imperfect and funny," she comments.
According to Vladislav Obushinsky, irony over ostentatious success, everyday scenes, an unadorned and even deliberately modest lifestyle are now popular. Household humor, family stories, animals, village life, cooking simple food, repairs, cottages, real professions and nostalgia for childhood are especially in demand.
— Two poles work equally well in rural content. The first is a pastoral: fields, silence, animals and birdsong. The other is rural "stuff": dirt, hard work, broken machinery, giving birth to animals and other aspects of real life, the specialist explains.
According to the agency's statistics, which is available to Izvestia, the video with rustic landscapes and birdsong has gained 33 million views, the video about hiking with a dog — 29 million, while the popular travel video — about 25 million. This, again, does not mean that the village has completely replaced the vibrant travel content, but in a short video, a donkey, a cat or a cucumber harvest may well beat a video with a luxury five-star hotel.
Back to nature
Clinical psychologist Sergey Volkov believes that the rejection of glossy photographs and videos is related to technological development.
— We are already used to the fact that visual content has a certain gloss, even the one made by housewives. Now there is a "improve" button in any social network. A couple of clicks and the photos become clearer and brighter. And with the advent of AI, we were overwhelmed by a wave of bright, perfect images," says the Izvestia interlocutor. — Against this glossy, ceremonial background, the simple content has become unique. It's like shooting with a film camera. Of course, a digital camera will make the image clearer, brighter and better, but a film camera will make it warm, soulful, and intimate.
He also emphasizes that in parallel with the improvement of video technology, cities are actively growing, but at the same time, design for the sake of economics, urbanization and ergonomics is becoming simpler and simpler. A modern LCD, he adds, is a geometrically perfect box with the same regular square courtyard.
— Meanwhile, the human eye is not only an organ of vision, but also a nerve channel. His task is to analyze what he saw, transfer information between the hemispheres. This complex apparatus of reaction to the external environment appeared in conditions different from the modern world. There are no straight lines in nature and bright colors are extremely rare, green predominates. And we live in a parallel-perpendicular world, which is a huge burden for the brain, visual noise," explains the psychologist.
In addition, the expert emphasizes, the brain defends itself as best it can, does not let unnatural details into consciousness. That's why people prefer content that doesn't stand out due to color and clear geometric shapes.
— Several generations have grown up in endless color-shaped noise. Now their brains are striving for what it was created for — to look at the green foliage of crooked "wrong" trees. It's not for nothing that psychiatrists advise people with depression to go outdoors, walk barefoot on the grass, live in the countryside or in a holiday home outside the city. Such recommendations have a deep psychotherapeutic and neurological meaning, because it is not only psychoemotional silence that heals, but primarily acoustic and visual," summarizes Sergey Volkov.
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