Before the Internet Told Us What to Like

Why taste survived the early 2000s but struggles in the algorithm era.

How Do You Define Taste in 2025?

Such a great question.

If we look back at the early 2000s, when the internet was still becoming a real tool, taste was at an all-time high. We didn’t rely on algorithms to decide for us. People trusted their eyes, their instincts, and their curiosity.

Today, we live inside a loop of moodboards, reels, and endless content. Somewhere along the way, we “lost” our sense of taste. And the truth is that we did it to ourselves.

Believing your brain can generate something original after being overloaded by algorithms is a gamble. The kind of gamble you make in Vegas. It reveals who you really are. Do you stand for something, or do you like it because everyone else likes it?

Taste in 2025 is defined by what you keep for yourself.
The music you listen to that no one else hears.
The articles you save.
The screenshots that live in your camera roll.

That is the only territory untouched by algorithms, which makes it the last real expression of taste, in the digital world of course.

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So, Who Still Has Taste?

People who are consistent.
Consistency shows they think for themselves and aren’t chasing trends for the sake of momentum. Someone without taste cannot stay relevant for long because they have no structure or understanding behind their choices.

Performative taste shows up when people skip the research. They wear brands for hype, not meaning. They reference things they don’t understand. It supports Virgil’s idea that purists and tourists should meet somewhere in the middle. It also aligns with Bruce Lee’s philosophy:
“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”
There is no better definition of taste.

Something changed in 2020. Being home, being online for unhealthy amounts of time, being disconnected from real culture. The separation between having a point of view and copying everyone else faded. That was the first crack.

Instagram trends show it clearly. some brands/influencers/creators are creating something because it is viral, not because it speaks to them. If the motivation is virality or recognition, the taste is not there. Copying never equals taste.

Without taste, we lose culture. With no filtration and no accountability, anyone can speak with confidence even if they know nothing. When people chase virality instead of accuracy, important moments get lost. Narratives get rewritten. Everything becomes shallow.

People are exhausted by surface-level social media. The audience shifted. They no longer accept gestures of knowledge or quick takes. They want depth, context, and real understanding, which is why long-form content is exploding right now. Podcasts, essays, vlogs, and Substack posts became popular because people expect proof of perspective, not hints of it. Taste takes time to articulate, and that is exactly why it is disappearing.

You cannot express it in a three-second hook.

That sentence is the whole article. If you take one thing from this piece, let it be this:

You cannot explain taste in three seconds.

See you in two days.