Living in a dumpster fire of a society has been tiring over these past few years, which is why the media has consistently been a popular and helpful escape for many. Especially in 2025, people flooded social media with their theories, emotions, and reactions to the media they were consuming. Whether it was a big blockbuster movie or a small show, communities formed—and continue to form—in every corner of the internet.
The first big on-screen event of 2025 was the release of A Minecraft Movie in April. As you may recall, internet trends wreaked havoc upon local movie theatres. During the “Chicken Jockey” scene, people caused the most chaos they could by throwing popcorn, with some even smuggling live chickens in which they hoisted into the air. Although those few months were not very pleasant for movie theatre employees, people online felt connected. It was chaos, but it was organized chaos. Some were united in support of the fun adults were having at a movie more targeted at children, while others united in disdain for the absurdity of it all.
Then over summer, another big cultural moment began to emerge. Every Wednesday, our feeds were flooded with content about the new and final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty. People online shared their reactions ranging anywhere from yelling at Belly through the screen for her poor decisions in men to sobbing their eyes out during heartfelt confessions and realizations. Every detail was nitpicked, some of which reached a degree that was entirely delusional, but yet it was still fun and endearing. Between deep analyses of the usage of colors and the endless Conrad Fisher edits, we all felt a bit closer. At the end of the day, we were all able to agree that “cacao is the bean, it’s what chocolate is made of!”, no matter whether we were die hard supporters of Team Conrad, Team Jeremiah, or even Team Belly.
As the holidays rolled in, the most anticipated television release of the year began to hit our screens—Stranger Things 5. On Thanksgiving, we all collectively agreed as a community to scarf down our turkey and run to the TV by 8 PM, and then to follow the same routine on Christmas and New Years Day. In the 10 years since the show first aired on Netflix, it’s been a consistent smash hit with infinite amounts of internet discourse and memes to accompany it. Most notably, fans agreed the show’s finale was so bad that it had to be fake. And so, they created #ConformityGate, the extremely popular online theory that another secret episode was coming. Though the Duffer Brothers disappointed a large percentage of their fans, we as a society gained something even more valuable than a logical defeat of Vecna—connection.
The internet can be a very dark place, especially in times like these with seemingly neverending emotional and political turmoil in our country. Yet, this year we all found a very positive way to be online. Without all of the amazing (or terrible) movies and shows that came out this year, it would’ve been harder to bridge the gap between us all. There’s nothing more inherently human than the journey a piece of media takes. Humans come together to write and create a human story, just for the happiness and consumption of other humans. The connection between people fostered by media is a persevering example of humanity in our broken world.
