Published 26 February 2026
Audiences are increasingly identifying hyper-convenience and tech/AI-streamlined everything as culprits in rising feelings of dissatisfaction, disconnection, and lives light on meaning. Enter ‘friction-maxxing’ – an antidote involving micro-dosing inconvenience. We unpack the internet discourse, content-creator storytelling and viral challenges, and campaigns and brand takes covering resisting everyday shortcuts, pushback against ‘slopper’ over-reliance on AI thinking-bots, rediscovering serendipitous socialising, and welcoming boredom.
Macro Drivers of Change
Regional Focus
Pillars of Innovation
Trend Duration
What is Friction-Maxxing?
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.
A response to the consequences of collapsed attention spans, instant gratification and cognitive outsourcing, ‘friction-maxxing’ (coined in January 2026 by American journalist Kathryn Jezer-Morton, meaning embracing healthy friction – e.g. doing tasks manually rather than relying on an app) is a solution striking a chord with audiences hungry to reintroduce meaning and human spark to their lives.
Social media content dedicated to encouraging audiences away from technology’s seductively optimised cheat codes are providing a new blueprint for living in the age of overwhelm. Elsewhere, content creators are documenting how they’re reducing reliance on shortcuts in device-dependent everyday routines – like running errands in their local neighbourhood, or giving themselves over to the mundanity of domestic tasks. They’re resisting the lure of ceding thinking to AI, extolling the benefits of carving out space for serendipity by de-digitising socialising, and testing theories about how boredom is integral to a reflective, imaginative mind.
For digitally fatigued Gen Z in particular, friction-maxxing signals resistance to the unfulfilling status quo of a heavily digitised life, and the desire to purposefully re-engage with the world.
This focus, which isn’t about an unrealistic desire for total digital detox, but rather the psycho-physical necessity to reactivate real-world connections, is also noted in our Look Ahead 2026 theme, Fourth Space Engagement.
No Daily Short-Cuts: Anti-Convenience Essaying, Local Living & Errand Effort
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.
- YouTubers Decode the Price of Everyday Convenience Expectations: Canadian @levihildebrand’s YouTube video essay Why Convenience is Killing Us (323,000 views) says the daily instant gratification provided by systems like same-day delivery and one-click purchasing has left us unable to handle life’s inevitable hiccups and convinced even minor inconvenience is to be feared.
Globally, 64% of consumers say they sometimes struggle to find meaning in their day-to-day lives, something rising ranks of netizens are putting down to experiences flattened by friction-free uber-convenience prioritised in a highly digitised world
VML, 2026- Food-Delivery-Dependent Netizens Discover Neighbourhood Nourishment: Other content creators are describing the gratification in venturing into one’s local community to buy groceries and dine out as a salve for snowballing reliance on food-delivery apps.
British teen TikTokker @sike_ward’s recent dining excursion with pals, captioned “This is your sign to eat in the places you always order from instead of getting takeaway”, hit 11,500 views. Others are swapping the ease of big chain supermarkets and grocery delivery for the charm and community feel of shopping at butchers, grocers, and bakeries, like British millennial TikTokker @chantelleliving (27,000 views).
Some are making the effort to become a local: X user @dennismuellr went viral in 2025 for a post about making himself a regular at a coffee spot in every city he’s lived in, saying that turning up daily has given him community (7.9 million views).
- Dialling Up Mundanity with ‘Monotasking’ to Reactivate Simple Joys: Some vloggers are tracking how they’re friction-maxxing mundane tasks and errands, both for their own benefit, and as a wider statement against the perils of convenience. American TikTokker @miriam_tinny’s “good friction” endeavours include washing the dishes without listening to a podcast and waiting in a long queue without going on her phone. She describes connecting with forgotten pleasures in these “transitional” moments, e.g. the sensation of her hands in the soapy water, and the joy of people-watching.
- Vloggers Reconnect with Strangers as Errand-Running Aides: American @tylerdonohuee is posting about plucking up the courage to ask strangers, rather than Google or ChatGPT, for guidance on running errands, including where to get passport photos taken (12,500 views) and how to get a key cut (96,500).
- Vodaphone Ireland x Spotify Unlocks Intrigue of Everyday Interactions: Similarly valorising unplugging from phones to allow for good-hearted everyday interactions with strangers, in 2025, Vodaphone Ireland launched A Stranger’s Tale – a six-episode audio series on Spotify (by London-based ad agency Grey). Cork-born writer/director Locky describes stories told to him by strangers on public transport while ads for the series ran on buses, trams and trains, with taglines including: “This bus is full. Of stories.” A radio and social media content promo campaign hit 5.6 million total impacts.
Anti-Botlicker Content: The Antidote to Smooth Braining
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.
In the US, 51% of adults are extremely or very concerned that people’s ability to carry out tasks independently will worsen because of reliance on AI
Pew, 2025- Botlickers & Second-Hand-Thinkers – Viral TikToks Sound the Al Alarm: Some netizens are stridently trying to alert those routinely outsourcing any tasks requiring brain power to AI that the apparent ease offered by platforms like ChatGPT is eroding our critical faculties. See American TikTokker @parkergriffin16 announcing that “ChatGPT is making you f***ing dumb” (734,000 views), or American TikTokker @alyhan declaring: “Some of you are not as embarrassed as you should be about the way you’re using ChatGPT” (120,000 views). Some are seizing newly minted pejoratives for the AI-reliant, including second-hand thinkers and botlickers.
American @lilss_grwm’s TikTok about quitting ChatGPT after worrying about its effects hit 49,000 views and triggered a comment section full of support and similar commitments.
- Opal Influencer Campaign Joins Cognitive-Decline Resistance: US screen-time-management app Opal’s brand TikTok account, @olivia.unplugged – which uses the strapline “screen time therapy for the chronically online” – is entirely dedicated to entertaining but educative content about brain hygiene, delivered by its social media manager, American Olivia Yukobonis. Posts range from explainers about phone addiction and AI reliance, to practical guides to taking time off from tech and retuning brains to think for themselves.
- ‘Ask Me Instead’ & Anti-Omniscience Humour: One salve for smooth-brain anxiety is humour, packaged as half-serious assists for the AI-dependent.
Some creators are semi-jokingly offering their services as AI alternatives, like @karmapilled’s “don’t ask ChatGPT ask me” post (34,000 views) and @ragcityyy declaring: “To protest AI I’m replacing it. Ask me anything. I use less water [a nod to AI’s huge energy-sapping] and know everything” (9.4 million views – both American). To the latter, responses were mostly sarcastic takes on stereotypical questions asked of ChatGPT (including, surprisingly, American rock band @Kiss asking “what temperature for chicken in an air fryer?”), but @karmapilled garnered genuine enquiries that she responded to in DMs.
- Expert Podcast & YouTubes Talk the Science of Effort-Built Brain Power: Mega-popular American neuroscientist and podcaster Dr Andrew Huberman (7.38m YouTube subscribers) recommends nurturing neuroplasticity (keeping the brain pliable) via small tasks, like allowing yourself to think through a problem rather than immediately revert to Google or ChatGPT. American Dr Harini Bhat (2m Instagram and TikTok followers) encourages embracing finding answers for yourself, as described in her December 2025 TED talk The Thrill of Not Knowing All the Answers (80,000 YouTube views).
See also The Info-Encer Era in Pop Culture Primer 2026 and Neuro-Boutiques in Brand Spaces 26/27.
Creator Roadmaps for Reclaiming Serendipity
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.
Globally, 62% of Gen Z say they struggle to build meaningful relationships
Human8, 2025- #RejectionTherapy – ‘Shoot Your Shot’ Mentality Tackles Social Inertia: In the era of the so-called Gen Z Stare (a manifestation of poor soft skills derived from a lack of real-life interaction), #rejectiontherapy (15,400 TikTok videos, 10,000 on Instagram) is a friction-filled strategy for tackling social anxiety. It involves taking social chances – like asking for favours, often from strangers, mostly in real life – with a high likelihood of being turned down, to build social confidence.
Much of the content focuses on micro, local interactions, like American @fearwhoemma, who asks baristas for coffee discounts (2.3 million views). British solo traveller @leila_layzell (successfully) asked a girl she’d never met to share dessert with her (2.1 million views). British @Sophie_Jones111 is going viral for not only asking for small favours (like for a spare tampon – 175,000 views) but also risking bolder social interactions, like asking her entire train carriage if they’d like to hear a joke (1.2 million likes – they said yes!).
- Echo-Chamber-Busting Socialising: Some content creators are documenting embracing real-world vulnerability to make friends. American TikTokker @livschreiber has charted the success of Camp Social, her 2023-launched women-only US sleepaway camp dedicated to making friends, which went viral in 2025 and now has a 60k-strong waiting list. “Ninety-nine per cent of guests turn up solo,” says Schreiber, and the camp has a rule that you should try to say hi to everyone new within a 10ft radius.
Content about people having solo nights out is also gaining traction, like British @Zeniththemenace and American @one.deb.at.a.time, documenting going clubbing alone and fighting awkwardness to dance and chat to new people (105,000 can’t find vid to check latest figures and 457,000 this account is set to private TikTok views respectively).
- Cadbury India Valorises Intimacy Born from Intention & Effort: Recognising both AI anxiety and heroing the power of organic connection, the 2026 Valentine’s Day campaign for Mondelēz India’s sub-brand Cadbury celebrated the effort and magic that makes love human. The film (made by American ad agency Ogilvy’s Indian division) shows young romantics at school, dancing, and saying goodbye, accompanied by a voiceover saying: “AI doesn’t know the joy of spending hours talking about senseless things” and “AI doesn’t know how it feels to ride 20km late at night just to say goodbye.” It’s reached 83 million YouTube views.
See Love in the Era of (AI) Automation in Valentine’s 2026, Anti-AI-Slop Strategies in Pop Culture Primer 2026, and Internet Trends 101: New Romance.
Pro-Boredom Content: #Rawdoggingboredom & Overwhelm Antidotes
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.
- Experts Defend Boredom’s Benefits: Harvard Business Review kicked off its pro-boredom discourse in the December 2025 viral YouTube video, You Need to Be Bored, featuring Harvard professor, author and social scientist Arthur C Brooks. In it he states: “You will have less meaning and you will be more depressed if you are never bored,” explaining that practicing just 15 minutes of boredom a day can make us more fulfilled. It now has 13 million views.
- Gen Z Take Drastic Action by #Rawdoggingboredom: Some Gen Zers have resolved to experience true idleness to access the benefits of boredom, posting content known as #rawdoggingboredom. It involves filming oneself doing absolutely nothing for 10 minutes to an hour to decouple from constant stimulation and re-engage with one’s own thoughts. Watching these boredom videos has become its own endurance challenge, with #rawdoggingboredom posts frequently reaching high views, like American teen @katend06’s 15-minute effort, watched by 11 million.
- Anti-Overwhelm Creators: American writer and mental health TikTokker @josh.czuba encourages his followers to see boredom as a creative skill to cultivate, saying: “If you can train yourself to be bored again, you will live a meaningful life in an age of unprecedented overwhelm” (606,000 Instagram views). American ‘how to’ YouTuber @kealan is charting his journey of “learning to be bored again to fix my overstimulated brain” (68,000 views), e.g. challenging himself to only pick up his phone with a clear intention, like texting someone.
- Nude Project’s ‘Art of Boredom’ Campaign Celebrates De-Digitised Possibility: Inspired by Spain’s widespread power outage in April 2025 that forced millions to go without the distractions of technology for 10 hours, Spanish streetwear brand Nude Project’s 2025 Art of Boredom campaign and collection explored the fun and unexpected inspiration that’s possible when we lean into boredom, particularly when wrestling time back from our phones. Campaign images show models wearing the collection (think linen sets and Bermuda shorts) and coming up with beach games, chatting, and snogging in car backseats.
See Wellbeing Futures: Tools for Better Living.
By adding micro moments of healthy friction to daily routines, content creators are revealing the joy of new or forgotten pleasures, like eating with friends rather than a takeaway alone, or interacting with strangers IRL rather than staying locked into devices. Look to Vodaphone Ireland’s audio series about chatting with fellow commuters for blueprints for extolling the magic of the everyday.
As increasing anti-botlicker sentiment and content (‘bot-licker’ is a derogatory slang term for someone who sycophantly promotes AI) scale Gen Z interest in brain health, brands willing to provide authoritative assistance against cognitive decline – rather than encouraging deepened dependence on friction-free tech – are set to gain (increasingly rare) audience trust. Blend robust science with sympathetic awareness of the roots of our dependence on tech, like the judgement-free (and human-fronted) entertainingly educative TikTok account from screen-time-management app Opal.
Content trends like #rejectiontherapy and odes to the value of reintroducing minor risk (going beyond one’s comfort zone) and vulnerability to socialising expose a rich vein of meaningful storytelling possibility for brands keen to deliver hope and heart to connection-hungry audiences. Lean all the way in, like Cadbury India’s charming, sincere elegy to trusting in the serendipity, devotion, and effort of real-world, human relationships over AI-mediated companionship.
Many Gen Zers are seeking to decouple themselves from optimisation pressure (the idea they should be constantly doing something to better themselves) and shallow dopamine hits, via drastic friction-maxxing interpretations like #rawdoggingboredom. Step up to help them seize boredom’s imaginative, reflective benefits via comms celebrating the life waiting to be lived when boredom is allowed to run its course (see Nude Project’s sun-and-fun campaign and collection).
