2022 Predictions for Culture, Media, and More!

Yeehaw, folks: We made it to 2022. And in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic, consistent political turmoil in America, and ever-growing reality that we might be living at the beginning of the end of humanity as a whole, it looks like Y2K fashion is back.

Sarcasm aside, it’s near impossible and truly unhealthy to dwell in the detriment of the human experience all the time, and with the mini-computers we all have in our pockets, it’s easier now than ever to occupy ourselves with an unending stream of media to distract from the ever-present existential dread.

As we creep further into the new Roaring 20s, fully cementing the separation from the Mumford and Sons indie rock, infinity symbol tattoo, mustaches-on-everything, cheugy vibes of the 2010s, the 20s are shaping up to be something different entirely.

While I’m not an actual medium and cannot truly predict what’s to come this year, I am a snarky queer with a smartphone and have paid (probably too close of) attention to entertainment and culture news since I was a young child, binging E! and coercing my entire family to fill out and score ballots as we casually watched award shows.

So, in my marginally expert opinion, I offer you all, OFM readers, a look into the future of 2022 culture and media:

Social Media in 2022: How Will Our Favorite Apps Fare?

With all of us increasingly glued to our phones amidst the pandemic strife, we’ve already seen abundant changes in social media (or, arguably, uniform and annoyingly capitalistic shifts, with Facebook introducing stories like Instagram, which were namely first stolen from Snapchat, and Twitter’s attempt to do the same with “Fleets,” which have since retired).

Looking into my crystal ball, 

I see Instagram fading further into the background if it doesn’t make some big moves.
Reels are essentially a TikTok copy-cat feature, the tab often littered with reposted TikTok videos as it is. The interface also shifted last year to favor a focus on shopping, to the distaste of many users. As the platform also shows how easy it is to add an automatic COVID warning about disinformation, while failing to adopt that same technology for violent, defamatory, or discriminatory content—often targeting BIPOC, trans, and queer folks—along with the persistent targeting of

sex workers via the terms of service, it often feels like Zuck is pushing people out of the app.

I see TikTok continuing to rise, though they face a similar issue with their censorship of queer, BIPOC, sex work industry creators, among a plethora of other marginalized groups, and reluctance to remove dangerous content that often targets those folks. From the inside, many creators falling under these categories (who have yet to be removed from the platform) are simply waiting for another app that will provide more protection and inclusion for them. 

It’s only a matter of time before another app emerges and takes TikTok’s crown.

To round out our social media trifecta (I should note that I think Twitter is just going to be Twitter—It’s tried and true, and I see that platform as unmoving), let’s talk Facebook, ahem, Meta. Given the abundant scandals Zuck and the team have faced recently, the role the platform has played in misinformation, politics, and very real-world effects, along with the weird, VR-based rebrand, to be real, I think it could go one of two ways: 

The new direction could be a hit, successfully separating the former brand from the bad press and boomer-heavy, misinformation machine it’s grown into; though (and perhaps this is my years-long distaste for the platform speaking), 

I have a hunch Meta/Facebook will crumble. Zuckerberg is already so removed from reality as a billionaire trying to save face over years of neglect and recklessness, and many folks are already seeing through the weird facade of a virtual world, a “Meta world.” Maybe it’s time for the platform to just die, though I wouldn’t be shocked if it finds a way to keep holding on.

As more of a miscellaneous prediction (or just a personal wish I’m manifesting in print): 

Something like Myspace—a highly-customizable, HTML-based friendship website/app—will come back into the forefront. There’s already a platform, Spacehey, which was built as a nostalgia project, fully mirroring the Myspace interface from the mid-2000s. Whether that site takes off, or another one takes hold, the 2000s are alive and well, and I know other depressed millennials and I would relish in the opportunity to jump back onto a similar interface.

The 2000s Renaissance: Eccentric Fashion and the Queens of Yesteryear

And that’s what we call a segue, folks. As I alluded to in the quippy lede of this piece, it’s clear historically that many trends re-emerge after about 20-or-so years, and the 2000s are back in full force. 

Especially as Gen Z continues to press forward into their adult years, many of whom are too young to remember those early years of the new millennium, 

2000s fashion trends will only continue to boom.
That’s right, folks: Expect more low-rise jeans, nets, scarves for no reason, those horrifying, squiggly headbands that push your bangs back—It’s all on the way.

I envision the panned photos of Disney stars on the red carpet in the 2000s, like Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, and their … “eclectic” layering schemes. Especially from a queer lens, campy fashion is in full force. 

I foresee the smashing together of layers, patterns, and styles becoming increasingly normal in everyday life.
And why not? I, for one, am happy to pair a Backstreet Boys graphic tee with Tripp pants and a denim bucket hat.

In the same vein, the “It Girls” of the 2000s are making their return: Lindsay Lohan is acting again, starring in the Netflix holiday rom-com Christmas in Wonderland; Britney is free; JoJo attended her first AMAs since 2004, and Katy Perry has black hair again. It’s all happening!

Next year is going to be a test for how much we’ve truly grown as a collective, in regard to some of our famed faves of the 2000s stepping back into the spotlight. If Britney has a misstep following her 13-year conservatorship (which, I’m sure she could—As someone who has been so isolated and is recovering from trauma and mental health struggles, I don’t expect her to be perfect in the public eye by any means), I won’t be shocked if the internet immediately decries her rather than having some empathy for her lived experience, though I hope I’m wrong.

As a person with a similar story, rising above a past of addiction and trauma from her prolonged life in the spotlight from an early age, the same issue could plague Lindsay Lohan. Looking back on the David Letterman interview where he mercilessly berated Lindsay with questions surrounding rehab rather than questions about the film she was promoting, I foresee the public and press being more kind than they were to LiLo in days past, but she has her work cut out for her with how ruthless the public can be. 

I hope for her sake, Lindsay pursues the projects she wants, ignores what anyone else has to say about it, and that the public and media hold themselves accountable for their responses to people like her.

Musical icons of the mid-to-late 2000s could also have a mainstream renaissance. I’m talking Katy Perry, JoJo, Aly and AJ, Nelly Furtado, P!nk, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, and I’m here for it. We’re living in an age where we’re constantly connecting to the comfort of the past to cope with the present, which will offer the perfect opportunity for some of these iconic musicians to make a mainstream resurgence.

Could we even see Rihanna’s first album since 2016’s ANTI? … Well, OK, probably not.

2022 Movies/TV: Anime is In, the Persistence of Reboots and Remakes, and the Reckoning of Drag Media and Queer Inclusion

In a similar tradition, the anime-obsessed high school outcasts of the late 2000s (I get to say that because I was one) are having their moment. 

I predict anime and anime-inspired remakes making a big commotion this year. 

Whether it be live-action remakes (see last year’s Cowboy Bebop on Netflix or the long-teased Avatar: The Last Airbender reboot—albeit an American anime—which fans are eagerly awaiting and hoping isn’t a total mess like the last attempt by M. Night Shyamalan in 2010), the embrace of acclaimed faves like Naruto, Bleach, Evangelion, and new classics like Sanrio’s relatable and adorable millennial-adjacent tale, Aggretsuko, or the hyper-violent and rich storytelling of Castlevania (do I smell a spinoff series?) is sure to continue moving forward.

Like it or not …  

Reboots, remakes, or sequels aren’t dying any time soon. While I would argue we never needed the Jurassic World franchise to begin with, another release is already slated for 2022; Dune: Part II is coming in 2023, and Eternals continues the highly-successful Marvel lore with a new group of super-human beings (though, at time of publication, Eternals 2 has yet to be greenlit). Oh, also, I guess Avatar 2 is finally coming out, and starting the string of abundant sequels James Cameron has been teasing for more than a decade. (Is anyone still excited about that? Well, in any case, it’s happening, I guess.)

Speaking of Eternals, the film featured an openly gay couple, a first for the Marvel movies. 

The future will hold even more queer and trans representation; it HAS to, even if it’s just big budget studios realizing it’s what the public wants and will garner them profit. 

Especially following the success of shows like Pose, and the visibility surrounding the harm of casting cis actors in trans roles (did y’all see that Eddie Redmayne finally admitted years later he shouldn’t have taken his role as a trans woman in The Danish Girl?), the progress is immensely slow-moving, but I believe 2022 will be a turning point, showing more actual LGBTQ actors in roles mirroring their real-life identities, along with more stories about LGBTQ people that don’t boil down to the tragedy or detriment of our lived experiences. 

(I’m still processing 2020’s Happiest Season, which was essentially Kristen Stewart’s character being emotionally abused, gaslit, and pushed back into the closet for 90 minutes because her partner’s parents are right-of-center.)

In that vein, we’ve gotta talk drag. As the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise seems to be bigger than ever, expanding across country borders with numerous spinoffs and competitors, the move to embrace inclusive, all-gender drag is moving far too slow for my taste (and many other LGBTQ folks). 

This year could be a pivotal time for RPDR, and if they don’t make some sweeping moves toward inclusion, I predict other drag shows will begin to take the spotlight, or at least that Ru will be forced to make space for other shows alongside his. 

That could be The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, which has gained a substantial following over four seasons for their inclusion of drag performers spanning all genders and noticeably more raw and gritty frame for the contestants’ looks, or another program could easily swoop in and take the reins. 

—

I qualify the statements above once more, stating that I was not born with The Gift, and this is surely a collection of ideas based off my own hyper-consumption of media, a thought exercise in what I might like to see as we collectively move forward, and an admission of what we’re bound to see given the capitalism machine and the culture—desperately holding onto nostalgia of the past for comfort—that we all live in.

In any case, let’s press forward into the third year of the 2020s and make this decade whatever we want it to be. If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that time is fleeting, and we might as well craft the world and culture we want to see.

As our now-free pop queen Britney Spears so wisely retorted to a fortune teller asking “Do you want me to tell you your future?” in a 2010 ad for her Radiance fragrance: “No thanks; I choose my own destiny.”