Entrenched in echo chambers shaped by ever-present AI and tech-mediated experiences, audiences are feeling flattened by excessive convenience – dissatisfied by no longer experiencing the buzz of effort and disconnected from real life.

Friction-maxxing’s initial target is the app-and-device-dependent ways people shop, eat, and handle the minor hurdles of adult existence. Alongside YouTube videos decoding the price of convenience (i.e. robbing us of patience) is content about forgoing food-delivery apps; advocating shopping locally instead of one-click online purchasing; leaning into mundane, usually tech-outsourced errands; and pursuing good-hearted everyday interactions with strangers. 

Friction-maxxing is also uniting audiences grappling with sifting AI’s useful applications from rising anxiety about ‘smooth brain’: atrophy caused by relying on platforms like ChatGPT for basic cognitive tasks – a concern validated by recent scientific studies. Consequently, a wellspring of ‘anti-botlicker’ content is joining podcasting and video essaying about brain health, and brand initiatives backing cognitive fightback.

Exhausted by ‘efficient’ tech-mediated modes of socialising, such as dating apps, serendipity-starved audiences are turning to friction-maxxing content for guides on how to embrace the magic of chance. Creators are providing roadmaps for echo-chamber-busting socialising, chance-seizing, resilience-building #rejectiontherapy, and ‘wild dating’ spontaneity, helped by brands heroing organic connections. 

Fatigued by the pressure to optimise every minute of every day by filling it with tasks, boredom is re-entering online discourse as a must-have feature of present, reflective, and imaginative living. Encouraging content includes the science behind the benefits of idleness, drastic but effective ‘rawdogging boredom’ challenges, content creators’ anti-overwhelm antidotes, and even a fashion brand campaign celebrating the “art” of boredom.