The following piece is a collaboration between Edmond Lau + Matt Klein.
Edmond Lau is an award winning designer, art director, social media content creator and “Luxury Memeologist” who writes at the intersection of fashion, technology and new media.
Earlier this month, Lau shared a post on LinkedIn about “The Dark Mode Shift.” His observation amassed over a quarter of a million impressions and countless reactions – including coverage by The Financial Times. As Lau posits: we’re in the midst of a cultural descent into “darkness.”
What follows is a collab and exclusive, featuring Lau’s expanded thoughts and explanation around why “The Dark Mode Shift” may not actually mark the end of times, but rather a rebirth.
Who Turned Off the Lights?
For the last 15 years, culture’s pendulum swung decisively towards optimism.
Even in the face of global crises — from economic collapse to terrorism and natural disaster — the prevailing vibe of positivity (or “Light Mode”) remained unshaken in the West. Through it all, there was an implicit appearance of progress.
Matters were seemingly “improving” and any setbacks were dismissed as temporary glitches in the inevitable march towards utopia.
We lived through the worst Global Financial Crisis since the Great Depression, yet we “Party Rocked” with LMFAO and obliged to the mandate: “Just Dance.”
Four Loko was the drink of choice.
At this time, there was good reason to stay optimistic. We may have experienced intense economic calamity, but the blitz-speed of technological advancement allowed us to naively believe whatever struggles we faced were surmountable. At least we were charting upwards. It was hockey stick growth time.
The prevailing perception was that there was light at the end of the tunnel – whatever that meant. Just grow faster.
And so, from the sanitized minimalism of D2C “blanding,” to the frictionless ease of ZIRP-fueled conveniences, the Western World constructed a hopeful, polished façade throughout the ‘10s. Brands were obsessed with becoming our best friends, we manicured our highlight reels across social media, racking up monetizable followings, and your boss seemingly cared about your wellbeing.
Even as authoritarianism persisted elsewhere, and wars continued – it didn’t matter. The enemy was elsewhere.
Off to The Museum of Ice Cream.
Over the decade, however, darkness sustained in our periphery. Shadows crept out of view.
The extractive system of finance which caused the first financial crisis was never truly addressed, inequality increased, identity politics polarized, and the planet continued to burn. Then a pandemic hit, accelerating disorientation at scale.
According to the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer, roughly 70% of people believe that government leaders, business leaders and the press “purposely mislead people.” These figures climb higher and higher since 2021.
Meanwhile in developed countries, only 20% of people believe that the next generation will be better off.
Optimism is at risk of extinction.
Today, resentment has risen to a point at which it cannot be ignored any longer.
If you think the “vibe shift” is sudden, you weren’t paying attention.
The “light” was always struggling to flicker, but now it’s being enveloped by the dark. The flame is struggling for oxygen.
Across the spectrum: fashion, music, and of course, politics now find themselves unable to suppress a dark undercurrent.
Signals like hedonistic club culture and sex parties, “FKA Twigs being FKA Twigs,” hyper-individualism, Trump’s re-election and the “Boom Boom” era, represent a milieu of equal parts exhaustion, betrayal over broken liberal democratic utopian promises, and cathartic liberation.
The conclusion that many are coming to is: If “the game” was always rigged, then nothing matters. Therefore, everything’s now fair game. Yolo as Cope.
Altogether, a generation of youth are experiencing a brutal realization that nobody is coming to rescue them.
Welcome to “Dark Mode”
Are we doomed?
Well, not quite.
There's overlooked optimism at this moment.
Our collective turn towards the dark is arguably a necessary part of clearing a path towards better futures.
Nobody may be coming to rescue us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t save ourselves.
First, though...
Why did “Light Mode” Fail?
To better understand Dark Mode and how we forge ahead, we first should unpack why Light Mode failed. There are lessons.
Light Mode emerged post-GFC, at a time when distrust in institutions was at an all-time high. (Spoiler: Distrust would only grow). Amidst struggle, gauche displays of wealth were out. So amongst the corridors of power, the mantra of polite society during Light Mode times was to mask wealth and power under the veneer of something else.
The rules of capital post-recession dictated that:
Those that were wealthy deserved their success,
You could find your own way,
Things were different now (for the better), and
“We’re just like you fr.”
In media and fashion, this manifested itself in a performance of relatability and authenticity. Social media had, for example, brought celebrities down to earth. Jennifer Lawrence tripping at the Oscars made us forget that she would run in rarefied circles, which most of her fans would never find themselves in. With a target on conspicuous consumption, perceived commonality was a disarming cloak.
This was particularly evident when it came to luxury purchases. We weren’t merely hiding wealth ala “quiet luxury,” but there seemed to be a sort of collective delusion that whatever luxuries we consumed were not intended to be totems of economic power but rather a means of obtaining some nebulous “other thing”... whether it may have been better quality, access to community, or simply better aesthetics.
That is not to say those products did not actually possess those qualities, but rather we often pretended that these products’ socioeconomic status wasn’t part of the purchasing decision.
“I would never buy something just to show off, that’s beneath me.”
This was virtuous consumption as a moral good.
A Case Study: Benz’s “Grow Up”
In 2017, Mercedes-Benz encapsulated this phenomenon in ads called Grow Up, a campaign designed to sell its compact car range by rethinking what owning a Mercedes represented.
Here, a Benz was not a status symbol, but a marker of becoming – a rite of passage into adulthood. In the ads – mostly a series of short films – the cars were never the main subject, instead they were quietly slipped into the background behind the brooding young adults whom Mercedes envisioned would be their next generation of drivers.
By cloaking luxury car consumption in self-actualization, Mercedes offered younger buyers permission to believe they weren’t chasing status, but something much more profound.
And so many indulged.
We were comforted by the illusion that this kind of luxury was virtuous.
It was bigger than us.
For mass consumer products, while the focus was on “humanizing brands,” the strategy of masking was the same. Friendly language, warm pastel tones of millennial D2C, messaging of diversity and sustainability prompted consumers to feel good about what they were buying. A mattress in a box was so much more than just a mattress in a box. Sleep became branded.
Despite the fact that what we were buying was gradually becoming enshittified, premium-mediocre purchases allowed us to keep the dream of upward mobility alive.
“My razor blades have a really well designed website.”
Yet, all the while, there was something insidious at play.
In hindsight, the promises of Light Mode aesthetics were always contradictory. Framing luxury purchases as virtuous does not make them so, and mediocrity posing as quality will always reveal itself.
For a time, increasing diversity, inclusion and green-washing could effectively distract from the very real lack of economic and societal progress felt by millions – especially for younger demographics.
But eventually though, this had to come to a head...
ZIRP couldn’t last forever, an employer’s free Headspace subscription benefit couldn’t compete with capital’s demand for endless growth, and the hassle of cleaning reusable metal straws wasn’t making a dent in the climate crisis.
A mere appearance of progress couldn’t hold.
Forced positivity was not just ineffective, but harmful. The belief became: Things are good, so if you can’t succeed, something must be wrong with you. Optimize.
Gradually, the façade cracked — and now continues to crack.
A post-pandemic reckoning exposed reality again.
As market conditions increased costs of living and triggered mass layoffs without reprieve, the contradictions inherent in Light Mode were exposed. When COVID makes you face your own mortality yet you still have to worry about KPIs, we get the r/AntiWork movement.
So what did we do? We shifted towards the dark.
The Dark Mode Turn
The Hyundai Grandeur is the “Neo-Yuppie” symbol of Dark Mode. A return to formality, unabashed greed, and privacy through blacked out windows. Hedonism as a car.
Dark Mode has two separate functions: an abandonment of virtue, and an embracing of vice.
Let’s unpack each...
01. An Abandonment of Virtue
The abandonment of virtue is a rejection of the structural rules and norms which ruled us over the last decade and a half.
For many, they felt suffocating.
It's now obvious that playing by the rules doesn't work. Conversely, not playing by them is what seemingly determines success and power. Trump is seen as more authentic than Kamala despite lying more than Kamala. But that clearly doesn’t matter. When we see these dynamics play out on the world’s largest stages, whether you agree with it or not, the mentality trickles downwards.
Unfiltered, raw “authenticity” and a lean into immoral self-indulgence feels too good. Especially for those who have felt this debauchery suppressed for so long during Light Mode.
Abandoning virtue is not so much an abandonment of personal virtue but abandoning societal virtues of what is expected of one. Why get a 9-5 job if you can sling $500 into a meme coin and make $10,000 overnight? Or why work a consulting job that punishes efficiency because your bonuses are dictated upon running up billable hours? Regardless, one still can’t afford a home or family.
A consensus is forming: If the rules aren’t working, let’s abandon them and seek out something new.
To be clear: Abandonment of virtue is not necessarily pure nihilism, but a rejection of structures which held you back.
02. An Embrace of Vice
Embracing vice on the other hand is about adopting villainy.
Monahan, in his piece “The Boom Boom Aesthetic” refers to the rise of supervillain inspirations of public media. The Patrick Bateman’s and Tony Montana’s and Jordan Belfort’s of the world, are – especially for young men – looked up to as their identities are modeled.
The approach here is called “going mask off.”
“Mask off” to reveal whatever you always were... for better or worse. If the first Trump term induced a tighter grasp onto Light Mode, the second Trump term is an expression of permission to full send into the dark. It’s transgression. (See: Kanye.) There’s an acceptance of any or all negative consequences.
Zuck’s “rebranding” is a worthy study here. It’s noteworthy that for many this makeover felt unexpected. But remember: the origin of the most powerful communications organization in the world evolved from the ability to rank the attractiveness of students. So... the embracing of “the chain” (another artifact of Dark Mode) and a turn towards “masculine energy” is not so much a chameleonic change to appease the current administration, but rather, perhaps, a return to who Zuck always has been.
Mask off.
So… We burn it all down?
No.
God. Please no.
While the original Dark Mode LinkedIn post focused on the cynical aspects of this moment, from further discussion and consideration of pieces like Elodie Marteu’s excellent Dark Optimism, it’s clear that Dark Mode actually invites some worthy positivity in too.
“Dark Optimism rejects utopia-focused ideals and instead opts for envisioning more achievable outcomes by not denying the underlying darkness.”
Further, as Samar Younes in a comment thread opined:
“What if instead of viewing this moment as a descent into nihilism, debauchery, or hyper-capitalist villainy, we reframe it as a crack in the veneer...”
Dark Mode isn’t representative of lawless anarchy or permission for incivility.
It’s representative of opportunity.
After all, a crack in the veneer lets in light.
To take the “red-pill” is a common refrain amongst the political right. Inspired by The Matrix (another ‘99 film), taking the red pill is a metaphor allowing one to “wake up,” realizing the inherent biases of the structures they live in.
Ironically, the liberal left is slowly undergoing its own process of forced “red-pilling” – their side isn’t quite working for them either.
The benefit of red-pilling is that by “unplugging” from the matrix, while we may be forced into the deep dark unknown, it is only by becoming conscious of our societal ills that we can then work towards something better.
We can only reconcile the contradictions of our society after we become aware of them.
Rejecting the rule book also means that a new one can be written.
There are those that claim that the Dark Mode turn is not a new phenomenon, but merely a cyclical event. Ricardo Callà for instance likens the current Dark Mode turn to the pessimistic turn of the 1970’s oil crisis and economic depression after the rapid halcyon liberalization of the 1960’s.
This may be the case, but it may also be beside the point.
Charting our unique correction for this moment is still required.
History rhymes but it does not repeat.
Leveraging Sensitivities
Ultimately, by working with our eyes wide open, we can identify and navigate paths forward.
In the dark, one may not be able to see, but our senses are heightened. This is an advantage we should take advantage of.
It’s worth remembering, that in darkness, while we have a natural instinct to seek absolute clarity and certainty, we must ultimately make peace with ambiguity. Ambiguity is inherent to darkness. There’s beauty and possibility in the unknown. Progress comes not from perfect decisions, but from iterations and momentum. Acceptance of unknowing is integral.
As we “mask off,” let’s embrace the opportunity to truly find and become oneself. Fakery and deception brought us to this moment. This should not be a green light for antisocial, regressive, intolerance, but rather an opportunity for real, deep critical reflection: “Who am I, really?” Only once you know yourself, can you come together with others.
And while navigating the dark, each step must be intentional. Sprinting is dangerous. How may we engage selectively, not exhaustively? Not every problem needs your input, and not every argument is worth having. Deliberation is key. Disengage where it no longer serves you, and never forget that opting out is also a power move.