once a.i images took over - a lot of things that were based on images died.

going to a fancy restaurant coz of 'you can take good pics' - dead - a.i can recreate that cheaper.

which means for a certain demographic - dating apps are dead too - since those were largely based on swiping photos.

the premium of in-person / small intimate events has gone up. likewise meeting in person, or doing things with a person live.

this also means imperfection has gone up in value (imperfection is a human quality).

I would attribute any in-person cultural shift to the generation of 20-somethings trapped online during their teenage years from COVID. They are finally old enough, and have enough power to run things.

"the premium of in person" is a string of words that only means something to people in a very specific circle where everyone is constantly trying to tastemake and write in lower case.

Ironically they have extremely limited influence on how the larger world moves: normal people won't meaningfully change their habits around eating good food or meeting up with each other just because AI can generate a picture of either.

the era of wabi-sabi is among us.