Looking Back at 2025: Did the Cultural Forces Hold?

What you’ll learn:

2025 was a year defined by tension: tension between convenience and complexity, connection and control, certainty and emotional overload. When we identified the year’s Cultural Forces, we were spotlighting behavioral undercurrents already reshaping how people live, make decisions, and care for themselves and others. 

Now, as the year comes to a close, we return to those five forces to ask: Did they play out as expected? Did they evolve? Or did something else emerge? In this article, we examine what held, what shifted, and what it all means for healthcare brands navigating a world that’s anything but static.

Cultural Force #1 – Mediated Existence

As anticipated, the shift toward mediated experience continues. In 2025, the healthcare system is increasingly structured around digital tools, with wearables, real-time health monitoring, and remote care platforms now being core to how patients engage with providers. The European Health Data Space regulation, passed this year, formalizes the exchange of health information across platforms, cementing digital mediation as a structural feature of modern care. In August, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (United States Secretary of Health and Human Services) announced MAHA’s (Make America Healthy Again) commitment to wearables, declaring “My vision is that every American is wearing a wearable within four years.”

Source: European Commission

The Future of Mediated Existence

This force remains highly relevant. Digital mediation is becoming a baseline for how we interact with the world. However, infrastructure gaps and growing concerns about data privacy mean the experience isn’t yet seamless. Brands must address both the benefits of mediation and the emotional need for real, human connection.

Cultural Force #2 – Context Is Everything

The 2025 cultural landscape continues to reward those who go beyond surface-level information. New research from MIT Sloan shows companies are restructuring how choices are presented, emphasizing meaningful context over convenience. In healthcare, this manifests in a shift toward intelligent tools that go beyond just giving answers—they go on to explain them. People still want clarity, but not at the cost of nuance.

For example, many clinical-decision support platforms incorporate AI to provide exactly that, providing more than an overwhelming volume of data (something HCPs don’t need more of) to instead provide specific insights and even real-time feedback on treatment decisions.

Source: MIT Sloan

The Future of Context Is Everything

The desire for richer, more personalized context is growing. What’s shifting is how people want context delivered: not more noise, but smarter, more adaptive insights, particularly as we see the rise of “AI slop”—perceived low-quality AI output. This gives healthcare brands an opportunity to simplify without oversimplifying.

Cultural Force #3 – Generation Algorithm

We’re seeing this force evolve in real time. Foundation models are becoming embedded in health systems, influencing everything from treatment recommendations to insurance approvals, yet research in 2025 shows users are wary. People are no longer blindly trusting algorithms anymore (if they ever did). Instead, they’re assessing, challenging, and in some cases gaming them.

The viral Group 7 TikTok trend was sparked by singer Sophia James’ experiment to test which of seven videos would be favored by the platform’s algorithm—and it took on a life of its own. What began as a test of reach became a cultural moment: users who saw the seventh video began identifying as Group 7, bonding over a sense of algorithmically determined belonging. Thousands joined in, declaring themselves part of an elite group, even arranging real-world meet-ups.

This is Generation Algorithm in action: individuals accepting, even celebrating, the idea that an opaque system quietly “assigns” them meaning and then actively plays with it.

Source: The New York Times

The Future of Generation Algorithm

This Cultural Force is still highly relevant, but more complex than passive adoption. People want personalization, but they’re also aware of the limits—and risks—of outsourced thinking. Brands must design tools that empower, not dictate. A great example is the evolution of patient companion apps. These are designed to help patients manage and track all aspects of their treatment and health condition. The apps now go far beyond simple symptom and appointment tracking to using algorithms that combine different data sources to anticipate and predict potential challenges and setbacks.

Cultural Force #4 – Gendered Realities

This force has only intensified in 2025. New data from the European Parliament and UN Women shows persistent gender-based disparities in healthcare, particularly in diagnosis, pain recognition, and care access. While global health equity has improved on some fronts, women continue to experience more years in poor health and greater systemic friction in navigating care. Cultural expectations and digital platforms are also reinforcing diverging experiences of health and risk across gender lines.

Source: UNSD

The Future of Gendered Realities

This remains a powerful and necessary force. The story is more than differences in outcomes. In 2025, we’ve seen that it’s about differences in perception, engagement, and trust. Healthcare brands must address these realities with specificity, inclusivity, and empathy.

Cultural Force #5 – Emotions Running High

If anything, emotions have intensified. In 2025, studies continue to link social media use with emotional dysregulation, particularly among younger adults. Digital spaces reward extremes like rage, joy, and grief, and many are turning to emotional tech to cope. From AI-driven mental health apps to digital mood tracking, the line between care and emotion management is increasingly blurred.

Gallup launched new research into the State of the World’s Emotional Health in late 2024, reporting that “negative emotions worldwide remain far above levels from a decade ago, even after easing from their pandemic-era highs.”

Source: Gallup

The Future of Emotions Running High

Emotions are still running high, relevant, and growing. While this force is strongest in youth-driven digital culture, the emotional pressure is pervasive. Healthcare brands must offer resonance instead of information. Messaging, support tools, and care models must account for the emotional volatility patients bring with them.

Conclusion

The Cultural Forces that shaped 2025 remain relevant. Each one has surfaced in different ways, through changing patient behavior, growing emotional complexity, and the increasing presence of digital systems in everyday decisions. Rather than fading, these forces are now part of the cultural backdrop that healthcare brands must work within.

As we prepare for what’s next, we’re keeping a close eye on the subtle shifts already emerging. New expectations, new technologies, and new tensions are beginning to form. In the months ahead, we’ll explore the next set of forces shaping the future of health, care, and communication.