2023 Predictions & Revivals
Lifestyle, Fashion, Tech & Content with Me 😘 🎊
What an interesting year!!
As a content creator, I wrote 49 newsletters (27 on Substack), and filmed, edited, and produced 41 podcast episodes. It has been very fun, and I’ve had amazing conversations with my guests. But in the words of my friend Brian Blackmore, “An algorithm doesn’t get tired, and I do.” (See: Meet Me at Foxwoods) *Deep sigh of agreement* I’m very excited to explore how showing up online looks differently for me next year as new structures and tools for creators emerge.
Speaking of the internet, getting involved in web3 led me down an exciting new path!! I joined the founding team at HerHouse, created content for Boys Club, contributed to RADAR’s first futures report, A Future In Sync, participated in MetaCurious’ first cohort, and was became a member of Arkive (See: A Mall in New Jersey is The Best Place in The World), FWB (See: Social Media: The Reality Show Starring You), and DirtDAO. They are, IMHO, the coolest corners of the internet. I made a lot of URL friends who became IRL friends, which I genuinely love and enjoy.
I also – plot twist – started working in web3 marketing at an IP entertainment studio. Fun!!!!! I am really, really happy to be working, collaborating, creating, and celebrating with others again. (When people say they’ve become increasingly introverted since the pandemic, that’s all well and good, but I simply cannot relate.) Now I am just enjoying not only work, but life, on my own terms. *Deep sigh of relief*
Big TY for reading/watching/listening. LYSM and appreciate your support always. 💖 Have a healthy, happy new year!!! 🥳 xx Nic
🍒 This Week on Nicstalgia
In this solo episode, we are doing whatever the opposite is of taking a walk down memory lane. I share with you my lifestyle, fashion/2010s revival, and tech trend predictions for 2023. We’re due for a 2020s version of wine/paint bars. Pickleball? Grandma stuff? Mushroom bags? I’m here for it. Will we see a resurgence of business casual, going out tops, or the perfect combination of the two: peplum tops?? Dare I mention…side parts? Giant Bakers-esque 6” platform stilettos? It’s time for a new generation to risk it all (namely, a sprained ankle) trying to leave the house. (Shoutout to the Diffusion of Innovations and my retail career for making this episode possible.)
Do younger generations ultimately just end up turning into their parents’ generations? Is ChatGPT for Gen Alpha just Wikipedia for Millennials? Is the -verse coming for us? (Taco Bell-verse will have us at bay.) I talk about web3, the next iteration of the internet based on ownership, and dig into what the future looks like for content creators and influencers as the breakdown of social media as we know it begins to unfold. What does content production and distribution look like when we center creators rather than platforms? I share what I think is going to happen to influencers and creators of different sizes based on the current web2 (social media) landscape, the tools that can facilitate positive change so we’re not a bunch of burnt out robots, and advice for fellow nano influencers. (TLDR: don’t trust an algorithm lol.) Nicstalgia had 41 episodes in 2022 – thank you for coming along for the ride!
Watch/listen: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts • Website
🛼 Haven’t You Heard?!
My fav things from the internet THIS YEAR:
First and foremost, I joined Twitter at the end of last year to get into the web3/crypto space have Missy Elliott acknowledge my existence. I will be framing this:
I wrote a piece on Medium at the beginning of this year – Nostalgia vs. Nowstalgia, and Why Both Matter in 2022 – and was terrified to reread it LOL but it still holds up!!
You have probably not talked to me this year without me mentioning Max Read’s Mapping the celebrity NFT complex. Pop culture is what will move the needle toward mass adoption of web3, and I love thinking about both the advantages and unintended consequences of bad actors (literally) in the space.
Really enjoyed Liz Hagelthorn’s What Does “Ownership” on the Internet Mean? as it dives into social media’s global creativity crisis; innovation, interoperability, and data portability; algorithmic-driven creativity & fatigue; advertiser monopolization of creativity and perspective; and recommendations to support a user-owned internet.
I spent a lot of time this year reconstructing my belief system around work. Tbh, being a full-time solopreneur felt like martyrdom to me, and working in a creative silo was very isolating. Austin Robey’s Evolution of the solopreneur for Metalabel was a total game-changer for me, and Metalabel’s After the Creator Economy is a truly excellent blueprint for future possibilities. Saying it restores my faith in humanity for what comes after the creator economy as we know it may be hyperbolic, but is definitely accurate.
Is pop culture dead? is an awesome piece by Trey Taylor on cultural churn. This take really, really resonated with me, as it summarizes what it’s like to be on the pulse of digital/internet/pop culture. There is a lovely dichotomy of being Very Online™, where you absorb information constantly and can participate in relevant discourse, and feeling like your brain is actually melting out of your ears.
“I would argue that we have mistaken our powers for our necessities, and continue to produce bad content because there is a proven hunger for it. As Miley Cyrus so aptly put it, “we can’t stop.” The options now are to disengage from the zeitgeist completely to finally achieve peace of mind, or fully submerge oneself into contemporary culture, overindulging while hemorrhaging brain cells. (The in-between—occupied by those rare beings who can selectively choose to listen to one buzzy podcast or watch one TV show before tuning out—is purgatory.)”
I’m now a full-blown Dirtbag. Back in September, Dirt opened applications to their DAO, received 60, and only admitted 9 new members. I was one of them! 👀 There are few newsletters/communities that I enjoy more. My favorite pieces for Dirt this year were Are we post-platform? by Eileen Isagon Skyers, Worldbuilding, Pt. 1 and Worldbuilding, Pt. 2 by Terry Nguyen, and Hot regression summer by Katie Rothstein.
Speaking of regression, Time’s Welcome to the Era of Unapologetic Bad Taste summarizes the tackiness that was 2022. (See: I Am Trash, But I Am Free) This article introduced me to Carl Wilson’s 2007 book, a critique of Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love album. It’s based on the scathing assumption that if you like her music, you must be devoid of taste or lack refined musical preferences. HOWEVER!!! I learned from Metalabels will be the tastemakers of the internet by Samantha Marin that “When someone has "good taste" they have well-refined preferences.” So count on me as having excellent taste!!! 💅🏼
My fav Twitter interaction of the year (other than Missy Elliott & me) is Cardi B shouting out MCR. (See: My Chemical Romance: The Musical) Ma perché did they respond in Italian??? I’m nooooot okay 😅
💿 Hey Mr. DJ, put a [playlist] on
Playlist of the week:
Manic Pixie Dream Retail Girl is the ultimate playlist that encapsulates my late 00s-early 10s pseudo-Twee, Indie Sleaze, Tumblr Girl existence. (Note that I use these micro-aesthetic labels VERY loosely lol. Ya know what though, I’d love to meet the entry-level, likely Brooklyn-dwelling, millennial hipsters who made the playlists I listened to on an infinite loop while working at a mall in the suburbs of Boston.)
This is one of my favorite playlists to curate, because I rediscovered long lost music that had previously only faintly and vaguely occupied a small crevasse of my brain. Unlike let’s say, Middle School Dance – comprised of very well-known, mainstream pop songs – a few of these indie songs I had ONLY heard playing out of the speakers while at work. Despite knowing the lyrics by heart, I could never actually tell you the name or artist. (This was before Shazam was the norm.) Hearing these immediately transports me back into a specific place and time. I love music like that. ENJOY!!!
🧨 Spice Up Your Life
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