I'm an avid user of Twitter (X), as I'm sure you might've figured out by now. Every now and then I'll see a headline like this:

Or this…

Or even this!

There seems to be a pattern amongst certain Hollywood elites— no phones. The ideal extends from their personal lives of seclusion towards the respectful approach of their craft. Timothée Chalamet goes dark to immerse in characters like Bob Dylan while influential directors like Christopher Nolan, Denis Villeneuve, and Quentin Tarantino are outspoken about their decisions to ban phones on set.

Hollywood has long been a zeitgeist for American life; success in the industry is seen as having exceptionally-high status in society. Media outlets selectively report on film’s celebrities, however beneath the headlines are whispers of our unfulfilled desires. What draws us to these ‘no phones’ headlines in particular?

Inspired by celebrities and reinforced by social media, I'm seeing early signs of an emerging mimetic: offline luxury. Though most won’t start living without a phone— we’d end up inconvenienced and isolated— there is desire for some semblance of that lifestyle.

Given the fading mirage of 2010s hustle culture and modern technology's increasingly-apparent detriment to our individual psyches, a disconnected life is becoming somewhat of an aspirational ideal.

In This Post

• The Tired Hustle Aesthetic: What happened to the hustle guru?

• A Slop-Filled Hole: How social media platforms don't serve our aspirations.

• Offline Luxury: The new status symbol of the emerging zeitgeist.

The Tired Hustle Aesthetic

Don't take this as overarching cultural analysis since I haven't got the first clue about anything. But I do have an observation to share that may apply to certain niche groups: the internet’s hustle aesthetic has been hollowed out.

Remember Thai Lopez? 5am wake up, cold shower, meditate for 30 minutes, journal affirmations, then go build your million-dollar drop shipping business and fill your garage with Lambos.

The mid-2010s internet was flooded with talking heads promising ubiquitous material wealth for those willing to follow their playbook on business success. The siren call of permissionless access to a global customer base via social media was quite a lucrative dream to sell to wantreprenuers looking to escape their jobs.

The hustle guru still exists on the internet today, but only as a shadow— he's not nearly as earnest. The aesthetic has been commodified so thoroughly by various internet personalities that it’s transformed into ironic spectacle for sake of amusement.

Take the most recent player to enter the fold: Ashton Hall.

Patrick Bateman is another prototype to consider. The character's proliferation across social media in multiple memes and contexts weaves a prevalent evolution of the self-optimization aesthetic with a darker twist: self-obsession and prideful aloneness (sigma). Though the level of exaggeration, irony, and satire vary, capitalist hustle is rarely portrayed as serious, though may still be taken seriously by some.

There’s an increasingly-jaded attitude towards the ideal of wealth/success/hustle/grind. Steve Jobs, Oprah, Michael Phelps, Kobe Bryant, all uniting American models of excellence and achievement who were real and serious in their aspirations for greatness have seemingly vanished, leaving the spotlight to be consumed by unseriousness and grift.

Though the longing to achieve status and material success is still part of our American DNA, the internet’s subscription to that belief has become meta-ironic and detached as the absurdity of it all seems to be the only thing that's true.

A Slop-Filled Hole

There's an aspirational void amongst young people today. The world is overwhelming fragile with rapidly dissipating trust and understanding across the board. It's hard to know who/what to turn to as a role model for navigating towards a better future— our screens contribute to disillusionment and don't give answers.

History and stories from the past are a good place to go searching for wisdom. Jonathon Haidt (author of The Anxious Generation) created a Substack publication that equates our current technological/cultural moment to the fallout in the Biblical parable of Babel:

It's a fitting example. Smartphone technology paired with social media once glistened as if primed to usher in a wave of prosperity. But the ubiquitous changes to how we communicate and exchange information have instead deteriorated our social fabric and threatened our shared understanding of truth.

Wrongful platform incentives from profit-seeking big tech monopolies are largely to blame. The informational commons have been extracted for shareholder value so extensively that slop content for sake of engagement/efficiency has seeped its way into nearly everything we see. There is a growing desire amongst a cohort of consumers for a way out.

Swedish punk band Viagra Boys dropped an album last week; a line from the chorus of their leading anthem-like single resonated:

Fueled by black box algorithms designed to syphon attention from consumer eyeballs, modern social media functions more like a broadcast channel and less like a way to genuinely connect. Young people cling to their social network, trapped in a web of harmful technologies that subject them to a spiritually-void onslaught of toxicity and nonsense.

The dam preventing toxic information from flooding our minds has long burst and the surreal effects are worsening. If only we could disappear.

Offline Luxury

This long-winded synthesis may've strayed a bit from what I'd originally introduced— thank you for bearing with me. Here's where it all comes together: Offline is the New Luxury.

In 2025, luxury isn't about what you can buy— it's about what you can turn off. To be unreachable is to be untouchable. Being high status is the ability to withdraw from the hustling amidst the digital noise and to truly live.

• Hustle culture is out —> performative actors are exhausted

• Big tech has lost trust —> the greedy platforms serve slop

• Celebrities & elites are going dark —> peace + privacy = power

• Consumers are craving peace —> leisure is returning as high status

Together, these signal a collective burnout from the always-on, always-optimized digital life, and a hunger for quiet, analog, meaningful living. We're in the early innings of a lifestyle shift. The rich are leading it but brands, consumers, and culture at large will follow.

• Cinema's escapist fantasies are rarely set in modern times. Nobody wants to create a film with a cell phone in it. Nosferatu director Robert Eggers claims, "the idea of photographing a cell phone is just death."

• Bottega Veneta exited social media to prioritize creating an authentic presence that feel more real. Their latest campaign showcasing a glimpse into A$AP Rocky’s fatherhood is a reflection of that.

• Apple doubled-down on messaging privacy to strengthen their luxury brand appeal relative to the field.

• Sauna/bathhouse experiences like Othership have gained popularity by creating brands that reflect an atmosphere of warmth and IRL connection.

Presence, authenticity, and an ‘offline’ life are the rare qualities people will desire in themselves when they see it in others. Offline luxury is afforded by the rich and famous year-around, but consumers will line up to pay for a slice of it in their own lives.

Smart brands will take note and position themselves accordingly. Be on the look out for a leisurely, offline ideal to frequent marketing campaigns and solidify itself in the American psyche this decade. Absence from the digital world is becoming the Gen Z luxury.