A few things that should be illegal in 2026 according to me
Part of Ginny World ‘2026’ Short Series
My longtime internet followers know I love to write and post about things that get under my skin. One of those ‘things’ are people who own a Dodge Ram 1500 in a crowded city like Amsterdam, using three parking spots to park their ego park a car with no cargo, or: cortisol inducing spinning classes given by cultish instructors who scream “THIS TOO SHALL PASS” through their Britney Spears coded headset.
I stopped posting this type of content on Instagram to focus on other stuff, but my presence on Substack as well as all the end-of-year posts, made me come back from this specific hiatus. Here I am to offer you my opinion on important matters I rather not see returning in the year 2026.
THE LIST PART 1
Poverty cosplay
To visually belong to a certain subculture or community takes no effort these days. Every style is literally one digital click away. Fast fashion replicates looks almost immediately, so you can buy every style and/or item a mere week after it was first spotted or blew up online. It’s delivered to your doorstep within 24 hrs, probably unethically produced in far away countries.
With my own two eyes, I have witnessed how fairly bland people rebranded into a more edgy version of themselves within a blink of said two eyes. Not by incorporating personal style and by sourcing unique items, but by simply stepping into a whole new visual identity almost overnight.
Per example: with just a shag cut at the hairsalon and popping in-and-out an Urban Outfitters, people can look like they grew up poor, working an underpaid summer job in the slums of Napoli. One of the hottest looks in 2025.
The world calls it ‘broke core’ or ‘poverty cosplay’. Looking like you were raised by a suffering family on foodstamps with only one set of clothes is surprisingly: an aesthetic these days.
Ironically, this particular style is worn by young people who walk around with expensive matcha lattes and designer items (Y2K era) sourced from curated vintage stores, looking terminally bored while performative reading a book outside the newest coffee salon, judging you for stepping out in a basic outfit, albeit their look is a mere creation of algoritmic copy+paste inspiration without a single trace of authenticity.
One of the few things people really suffer from these days in the Western world is spending money on dinners, sweet little treats and trinkets to numb the pain of not being able to buy a house. Other than that, “we have”.
Maybe we dress poor, not because we truly are poor, but because we feel poor in a time where even the people with fairly good jobs have a hard time keeping up with the rising cost of living.
Is the interpretation of poverty shifting? In that case poverty cosplay is the uniform of a new subculture, with the visual identity of an old one. Individual polarisation at it’s best. A way to show you suffer from the growing discrepancies in modern day society.
Just don’t judge me for dressing up Old Money style in ill fitting Zara items. I like to pretend I will actually own a house one day.
Vapes
Unfortunately, I am an occassional analog smoker (preferably Vogue slims because they look like I love to selfdestruct in a sophisticated way) and I have a hard time dealing with progress. Vaping was supposedly a more healthy solution to inhaling tar, but by the rise of that global lie, that now leaves me seeing people walking down the street dragging a USB-C charged bubbling dynamo, exhaling a near atomic mushroom cloud of apple berry watermelon cotton candy scented vapor, the equivalence of ten hookah-lounges being on fire on one block.
If people continue to suck on a battery in 2026, at least develop re-fillable vape cartridges with the scent of Oudh so I don’t have to inhale the artificial smell of fruits I don’t like to consume anyway.
Kelly Wearstler interiors
Kelly’s interiors are so extremely loud, everytime I see a picture or step into a KW inspired area, my vagus nerve is crashing out and I have to do a minimum of three Breathe with Sandy Youtube-sessions before I stop spiralling into near psychosis.
It’s not that I don’t respect her (great) taste, but every single item screams for my attention. Everything needs to be registered and looked at and therefore it’s impossible to overlook, because each detail either has a different structure, patern, material, color or shape. A bunch of attention whores. Or, a daycare full of crying babies who all need to be comforted at the same time. It’s just too much.
Seeing this maximalist style translated into the decors of many restaurants and households these days makes me fully understand that Kanye West & Kim Kardashian white and organic interior by Axel Vervoordt back in the day. It was a complete deprivation of any form of sensory stimuli, which - honestly - really calms the crowded and cluttered mind. And, I get it. In my humble opinion, rooms should not consume us, they need to be complementary to us.
When this hysterical maximalist Wearstler trend wears off, people will be stuck with pink marble kitchentops and golden cranes, electric blue sofas and leopard print rugs. Not that we need more beige and bouclé, but I believe there’s a middle. Somewhere.
In 2026, for the love of God, I wish for more balance when it comes to interior, just so I can relax for once, when I step inside a room.
Algoritmic content
Algoritms are not evil, but they do give a distorted perception of reality, facilitating online bubbles.
I, for one, thought smoking was on trend again, but my critical thinking skills luckily have not completely left my brain yet and so I had to draw the conclusion that it’s not smoking that is back, but that I liked a few cigarette memes (to make me feel less guilty of destroying my body for short term ‘pleasure’), which made the algoritm serve me even more cig content. If you like a few Reels about running, you’re gonna get Reels about running. The power is always in repetition.
If an original concept works and gets a lot of likes and engagement on social media, it will be picked up by the algoritm. That sparks other creators to create a video with the same concept, because it will likely perform well. These days people call it ‘trends’. What you see is copies of copies of copies. You’ll swipe across the same motivational running quotes created by different creators within no time.
There are a gazillion women who post the same ‘eyeliner for hooded eyes’ videos (I know this because I’ve watched them all), podcast registrations of men who show off an affordable Datejust while complaining about the bodycount of their imaginary future wifes, and ‘how to style’ videos of fashionistas wearing balaclavas and wide pants, narrating a perfectly aesthetic registration of trendy outfit combinations using the same monotoneous voice as all the others.
Capitalism has deeply penetrated into our cells and selves. We believe we are creating a personal brand, but we’re just creating more capital for big platforms like Meta. With revenue, but especially with data, leveraged by letting us think we accomplish great things by making content. The truth is we’re just creating what the algoritm is telling us to make.
If anything: seeing the same stuff everywhere, makes me want to move to an Eastern European forrest where I build a tiny wooden house with my own bare hands, while listening to a radio, go trough old magazines and talk to my friends via a satelite phone.
But hey, if you want to be the quadrillionth person who sells online courses, validated trough the popularity of your social media account, sparked by the algoritm; you do you. I just think more people will grow tired of the same repetitive visual slob and brainrot soon. Being able to truly stand out and be original will become the most eligable softskill of 2026. Or at least, it should be.
Thank you for reading part 1 of my ‘2026’ short series.
Part 2 will feature Private Member Clubs and more…
I want to thank the people who’ve donated a coffee in the past. You are truly a great support!
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Nice read! The whole 'personal brand' thingy resonates. I hope it will be forbidden one day to write those two words together. An article I found really nice to read about social media, algorithems, our brain and how we get dumber (and I think you would appreciate too): https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/american-adult-lower-iq-scores-cognitive-decline-technology-flynn-effect.html?
Definitely with you on American cars in European cities, whether it’s Amsterdam or Stockholm or Prague. These cities are simply not built with this kind of cars in mind, and parking is difficult anyway. The same goes for MAMILs (Middle-Aged Men in Lycra) in the city, especially when they ride in groups. They tend to compete with each other, which makes it dangerous not only for pedestrians but also for other cyclists...besides it is unpleasant scene anyway...
I also agree about vaping. I’m a very occasional smoker myself. I tried my best when I was young, mainly because of advertising of MORE cigarettes in the 80s, felt so cool, the woman you want to be: https://es.pinterest.com/pin/33565959717715729/.....but somehow smoking never really stuck with me.
I recognise the interior design now, I just had no idea it was considered a particular style. To me, it always felt like a flashy English B&B look: carpet with one floral design, bed linen with another floral design, wallpaper with a third floral design… it literally gives you eye pain.
Internet algorithms, yes. Once you’re in a loop, you’re always in the loop. It’s incredibly difficult to break out of it and discover new content. I’d also add the AI-generated motivational one-liners and paragraphs that people post daily just to say, “Don’t forget about me, I’m still here.”
Another thing that, for me, could be made completely illegal: popcorn, candy, or chips in cinemas. It’s incredibly irritating, not just the chewing, but also the constant crinkling noise of plastic packaging, which is so annoying. At one point it was only popcorn, and one could live with that. Now people bring all kinds of things and leave a total mess behind.
I might think of something else...