This post is part 1 of multi-chapter trend report by Berlin-based creative impact studio Very Good Looking, uncovering some of the cultural undercurrents which strongly influence how especially young audiences will react to marketing efforts and impact-driven storytelling in 2026 and beyond.
As the studio is building a tool box for delivering on it’s core mission (impactful creative work to empower change), we invite you build yours alongside us, based on this research.
Let’s get started.
What This is About
We’ve seen and felt it in our own work, especially this year — in some of the younger creatives we cooperate with, but especially in client teams. There’s seems to be an unnamed unease, like a built-up pressure, especially in mixed-age teams. It feels like a heavy undercurrent, driving the comms and decisions of younger team members, and while it was more experienced than outspoken and named, it was shaping discussions, confronting long-held beliefs and combatting values of their millenial and Gen-X colleagues. We have witnessed how it made our work, especially strategy, tougher and more complicated — but at the same time, interesting and challenging in a really good way.
It felt like something that was bigger than “just” a relatively localized brand positioning or messaging problem had taken ahold of our process, and it felt too big to ignore. So, we decided to look into it.
This report, of which this post is the first part, is the result of what we found, and we think it’s a fundamental piece of knowledge that can help guide purpose-driven brands and their marketing decision-making in 2026 and beyond.
Rising Nihilism and Hopelessness
Turns out what we had felt on the ground in our work had been measured globally.
Across much of the world, surveys indicate that younger generations today are far less hopeful and trusting than previous cohorts were at the same age. Researchers describe a wave of “cultural nihilism” among Gen Z — a pervasive sense of helplessness and cynicism.
For example, polls show record levels of youth disaffection with democracy, and trust in institutions has sunk to near-record lows.1
Entire online subcultures now celebrate being “black-pilled” (deeply pessimistic); cynicism has replaced conviction, and many young people no longer believe things can improve, so they’ve stopped trying.2
“Young adults have the lowest well-being of any age group, bucking the historically upbeat outlook of youth.”
Global data from 23 countries shows young adults have the lowest well-being of any age group, bucking the historically upbeat outlook of youth.3 In the U.S., nearly 40% of high school students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2023, up from 30% a decade earlier, and about half of Gen Z say they feel anxious or stressed regularly. Mental health struggles, loneliness, and despair have surged among youth worldwide, fueling a sense that the future has been foreclosed.
When Optimism is Cringe
One stark illustration of this pessimism is young people’s response to the climate crisis. In the largest international survey of youth climate attitudes (10,000 respondents in 10 countries), 56% of 16–25-year-olds agreed that “humanity is doomed” due to climate change.4 Three-quarters said “the future is frightening,” and over half believed they will have fewer opportunities in life than their parents’ generation.
This existential dread about global problems contributes to an overall feeling of defeat. Instead of the youthful idealism of earlier eras, many young people express a doomer outlook — a belief that apocalypse or collapse is inevitable (often seen in deadpan internet memes joking about society’s collapse amid constant bad news). As one commentator put it, “optimism is often treated like cringe” in today’s online culture. Being earnest or hopeful can invite ridicule, whereas snark and fatalism “go viral.” The net effect seems to be a generation that’s not simply lazy, gloomy or aphathetic, but first and foremost feels let down.
“Nihilism isn’t apathy — it’s heartbreak turned inward.”
As the Builders Movement (probably rightfully) observes, “nihilism isn’t apathy — it’s heartbreak turned inward. It’s what happens when idealism meets a system that keeps failing you.”5
In other words, young idealists didn’t just vanish; many tried to change the world, became disillusioned by repeated crises and gridlock, and have now retreated into cynicism or despair.
Where to Go From Here
In the next chapters, published across several newsletters on this channel in the following weeks, we will look at some of these above-mentioned trends in more detail — from the decline of moral idealism and woke activism to the rise of “villain-era” thinking and meme-driven doomerism.
We’ll also uncover which age groups are part of this shift, and which socio-economic and political drivers are behind this development — and what purpose-driven brands can do to address this change, speak the right language, and still create a brand environment that invites the will and drive to create positive change.
