2025 'Wrapped'

 2025 ‘Wrapped’


Put a pretty bow, a couple of party-popping animations and a glowing number on the landing page of an app, and you’ve got the recipe for quantifying and gamifying digital consumption. We, as a generation, are sticking a number on all the wrong things, just for a hit of success. Apps we use congratulate us on how much we use them, and we, faithful servants as always, fall right into the rat’s trap. 


These numbers, when shared (for example, Spotify stats) then stand to pit users against each other. Some listeners even try year-round to ensure that their end-of-the-year Spotify stats reflect a niche, unique taste. The more the hours-listened, the more superior you get as a consumer. All this while, companies and creators sit back and watch, probably laughing at us.


From Spotify (where it all began) to Linkedin to even Uber, almost every app we use has now begun to show its users their yearly stats, congratulating them on the amount of times they used its services. This takes attention away from the quality of its services by ensuring that their consumption is only looked at quantitatively. Customers begin to look inward more and more, but only through the lens of what they do on these apps. Consider the phenomenon of identity marketing, which flips the narrative of brands driving their own image to how consumers of these brands view themselves. 


So, are resolutions for the coming year turning obsolete in the face of the looming ‘wrapped’ of the year that has gone? It’s classic Gen-Z: getting stuck in the past because we can’t picture our future. We have to bring back the basics of hope, ambition and achievement—that aren’t tied to hours spent on our phones. 


Unfortunately, resolutions are famously futile, but they may still be our best shot. Or, in any case, we must beat the ‘Wrapped’ heat with a ‘Wrapped’ of our own. Reminiscence and reflections, if not resolutions, can be nostalgic as well as fruitful. In terms of things we did or didn’t do, small wins we celebrated, and losses we sought to overcome, we can reclaim year-end wraps for our own mental, emotional and overall well-being. 


We have to remind ourselves that we aren’t just passive consumers, but active members in our own lives. We can’t let companies and service-providers set our goals, targets and stats for us. That’s our job, for ourselves. 


And more than where we’ve been and what we’ve done, the New Year has got to be about where we hope to go from here. 


Written by Pia Oza

Edited by Harshada Viswanath 

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