Are we having a Survive 25 Summer?

The vibe is... hanging by a thread

I was knee deep in one of my regular posts about what’s catching fire in culture when I became fixated on something that’s barely alight - the summer of 2025.

Usually by now we would have coalesced around a song, a drink, a book, a vibe. But this season feels strangely undefined.

Even in our post-monoculture world our tradition of naming these things has persisted. Our love of a label is so great that it’s transcended our culture bubbles and given us Brat, Barbie and Hot Vax summers. For the same reason the song Despacito, the Gone Girl novel and Frosé will forever be remembered as symbols of summers past.

The summer of 2025 seems even more unusual when we look at a prevailing trend that’s portraying vacation season as a flop. Sure, I’m seeing lots of celebratory “this and” holiday posts but there’s also a notable uptick in videos showing just how hellish and overrun some of the go-to spots are.

Tourists and locals are posting from N…