This generation of young people was born into the spotlight. Seniors, you're not wrong—you're just too old Have you noticed that, seemingly from one day to the next, anxiety about age has become a common trait of everyone in this era? No one is willing to become the 'front wave,' so we might still post filtered pouty selfies on our Moments and call ourselves 'babies.' But deep down, we feel a nagging unease that the world is slowly slipping away from us. Don't worry—you're not alone in your midlife crisis. Procter & Gamble's most recent youth-oriented attempt was in 2016, when it replaced the latest spokesperson for Pantene in the Asia-Pacific region with two members of 'Asia's No. 1 girl group' Girls' Generation. This former daily-chemicals giant now faces its biggest headache: being seen by post-95s as a 'mom's brand.' In the media, bosses like Zong and Dong are still blaming 'Ma爸爸' (Jack Ma) for young people not buying their products. On the other side, middle-aged men like Luo Zhenyu and Ma Dong, who have long figured out the game, have transformed themselves and now seem to blend in with young people on camera. They preach 'the youth are always right' and paint themselves to be even more post-95 than the post-95s, becoming a spectacle of this era. The Social Environment Has Turned 'People' into 'Labels' In the past, people thought of post-95s as a generation, but more accurately, they are a type of person. During the New Year, a 14-year-old relative came over and seriously offered to teach me 'how to climb over the wall' (use a VPN), which startled me. I asked, 'With all those websites you've seen, don't you have any opinions?' He said, 'No, we've seen everything, but this time it's a patriotic 'expedition' using memes to communicate with the world.' See? At such a young age, they're already making demands and expressing themselves. Information is almost completely abundant for this generation. They have a very high acceptance of social networks because they were born into an environment of 'all-platform social media'—chatting on QQ, WeChat, posting on Qzone, browsing Weibo, visiting Tieba, lurking on Douban, and using Momo. They are practitioners who grew up in this 'social network combination play' environment. Using social tools skillfully to express themselves gives post-95s more remote social needs than the previous generation. Each person can contact and get to know more peers, something their parents' generation cannot match. But this also brings a problem: As individuals, no one can deeply understand another person from the vast number of virtual relationships online, especially the 'opposite sex' they most desire to understand. This forces many to extract the information they want from the clues in social media posts, using this method to maintain social efficiency. If you're unwilling to admit that the underlying reality is so utilitarian, just look at these popular and once-popular internet buzzwords? Notice that most of these words can be categorized as social 'labels'—like the small tags on clothes in Uniqlo that tell you basic product info at a glance, such as 80% cotton, 20% wool, machine washable, no tumble dry. The post-95s' love of labeling is a tool to convey the information they care about most in the most direct, brief, and rapid way. Through these labels, a young person can quickly learn important info from social tools:

  • Is he/she single?
  • My crush hits the gym every day lifting weights—great abs!
  • This person says 'Eternal Love' is a brainless drama—male chauvinist!
  • The top student senior is back from Stanford—how do I subtly get close without seeming too eager?
  • This author named Sheyu seems like a knowledgeable and warm guy!
  • My goddess was joking about being single before Valentine's Day, but today she's showing off her baby? Why I Don't See Post-95s in 'Pickup Artist' Classes I once had a friend who taught PUA (pickup artistry) on Zhihu, with several hundred thousand followers. 'Pickup artistry' is essentially a product that caters to the mating needs in this social environment. He would teach men who couldn't get girlfriends many practical tricks, but invariably, the first lesson was about shaping social labels—from the basic social entry point, i.e., profile picture (looks) packaging, to various Moments posts showcasing oneself as a high-value partner.
  • First, help them take a set of professional photos;
  • Take them to Western restaurants to teach them how to use knife and fork without embarrassment;
  • Higher-paying students could take photos at a golf course or horse ranch to use as Moments backgrounds;
  • After mastering these online packaging skills, they'd dress up the students and then move to 'real combat'—approaching the opposite sex in social venues. As an observer, I feel that pickup artistry is quite primitive; many techniques can be traced back to nature, but they work well for male students because the biggest 'feature' is teaching through rational thinking patterns, fitting male engineering logic, making them feel enlightened that 'picking up girls' can also be 'logical.' It sounds a bit low, yes, but it does help some older men who are not good at socializing to satisfy their 'conquest' needs. So I told my friend, 'Teaching this is bad; you're ruining girls.' He said, 'Sheyu, you don't understand. We're all adults; it's a mutual agreement.' Later, this PUA master friend also told me that most people with such social barriers with the opposite sex are post-80s; very few are post-90s. Of course, age and development play a part, but the bigger reason is that post-95s are naturally good at this. If you don't believe me, check out Momo or Tantan. The 'Fitness New Religion' and the Popularity of Under Armour Compression Wear Understanding label-based socializing helps us explain a phenomenon: Why is fitness so popular on Moments in recent years? There seems to be a paradox: logically, our parents' generation cares more about health and exercise, but now it's mostly young people who are sweating it out on Moments, posting various running routes. Under the slogan of 'thin is beautiful' and encouraging fitness, there's hidden discrimination against those with out-of-shape bodies. Because 'if you can't control your body, you're destined to achieve nothing in life,' and 'discipline gives me freedom' has made fitness a new religion for urban middle-class self-identification, also creating a new sports market. The first to benefit from this new religion was Under Armour. This American fitness apparel brand, founded in 1996, spent the past two decades playing second fiddle to big names like Nike, Adidas, and Onitsuka Tiger, until the social media era when it overtook Adidas and Nike and surged. But have people not liked wearing compression wear for exercise for twenty years? Of course not! This brings us back to a question: Why do young people go to the gym? For health? The latest survey data says no; the answer is simple: to achieve some social display. Posting photos of your trained body on Moments is partly about participation and gaining more attention, but deeper, it stems from our ancient ancestors. Imagine thousands of years ago, humans with strong physiques had better chances of reproduction. So for those men and women pursuing six-pack abs, a defined waistline, and a peach butt, their bodies are their biggest social label and mating advantage. Thus, it's easy to understand the popularity of activities like 'A4 waist,' 'I6 legs,' and 'touch your belly button from behind.' Imagine a scenario: after grueling fitness training, you finally have six-pack abs and the legendary 'dog waist,' and even the girls at the gym sneak glances at you. 'Thin when dressed, muscular when undressed' is no longer your goal; not showing off would be a crime. But a naked photo would earn you the label of 'exhibitionist' in your circle. That's when you need a more rugged, tight, hormone-filled, and aggressive compression shirt to highlight your muscular physique during exercise without being too flashy. Under Armour exists for this. 'Label-Based' Survival Will Be the Only KPI for Products To some extent, the emergence of the last wave of internet brands is essentially a product of technological information changes catering to young people. Three years ago, I was doing ad planning at Three Squirrels. The rise of this brand is interesting. In the past, coarse-processed foods like nuts had little room for innovation, and e-commerce in this area was once not favored by investors. But what does Three Squirrels provide? Nuts? That's only a small part. In fact, more importantly, it provides a sense of 'companionship.' A young woman in her early twenties can consume fast-fashion food like Three Squirrels and have content worth posting, such as packaging with big eyes and a squirrel face, clips with faces and ears, a handwritten postcard, and various figurines and collectibles. The rising post-95s market is punishing brands that don't get 'playful, edgy, and irreverent' When users open the package, they're captivated by a series of surprise goodies. These products satisfy the need for companionship and are closely tied to social scenarios. So in 'Ode to Joy,' countless young office workers and interns found resonance in the scene where Qiu Yingying and Guan Ju'er share Three Squirrels nuts. Three Squirrels designed a full set of such peripheral products and used its unique 'master' culture to create emotional communication with young users, with the ultimate goal of making them eager to post the little props from the package. This Generation Is Indifferent to 'Being Aloof'; Products Must Be 'Playful, Edgy, and Irreverent' 'Sapiens' tells us that gossip and imagination gave Homo sapiens evolutionary advanced productivity. Why could Uncle Sameer sell for 200 million? It's not just a self-media hype cash-out, but a huge intellectual property exchange behind it. This generation of post-95s users is alarmingly indifferent to functional products. For them, meeting functional needs is far from enough; they also need virtual value. The most important thing is that a product can become a 'label' that survives in their social tools. So for new-generation products to thrive, they must first be open-minded, with the spirit of the uncles on 'U Can U Bibi'—wrinkled faces, thinning hair, but still dressing flamboyantly and acting cute and saucy on variety shows. After all, we must all understand that this generation of young people was born into the spotlight. -END-