Insights · June 3rd, 2021
We are beyond excited to welcome a new member to the Futurist Think Tank.
Melissa Eshaghbeigi is a Webby award-winning Creative Strategist, Digital Ethnographer, Speaker and Futurist. She is deeply fascinated by human behaviour and lives to tell stories about the world around her. The world is her data set and her screenshot folder is overflowing with signals about culture shifts, emerging trends and consumer behavior.
As a life long lover and critic of the world wide web, Melissa specializes in all things Internet related: social media trends, Internet culture, digital advertising and content. Melissa turns data into information and makes culture easy to understand for clients and creative teams.
She’s made a career out of helping brands likes of adidas, Levi’s, and Twitter understand what people are consuming online to inspire new, relevant, and authentic ways to connect with their audience. Her love of presenting and sharing information has led her to share her observations and creative insights under the moniker, @ClosingMyTabs.
- Internet culture, creator culture, influencers/digital stars
- Gen Z / Youth culture
- Social platforms & The future of social
- Content / Content Consumption
- Beauty and fashion
- Entertainment & Media Consumption
- Shopping and Online Behaviour
Keynote: DARK FUTURES on ‘It’s 2039, you’re either stressed, depressed or cancelled’
Melissa takes us into the existentially-challenged world of modern social media at Nikolas Badminton‘s DARK FUTURES event.
Watch Melissa in conversation with Roxanne Nicolussi at the Future Festival #NoFilter event
Life in lockdown has made our digital identities our only encounters with one another. In the digital age, filtered or edited photos are more common than not. Life isn’t lived, it’s curated. This has come to influence, not only how we depict ourselves online, but also the extent to which we emulate said digital identities offline. One has immediate access to tools to cover their insecurities or fine-tune with Facetune. These behaviours have given rise to new health conditions like Snapchat dysmorphia, a condition coined by surgeons continuously asked by patients to “look like their selfie”. In a world where we see each other less and less in person, what kind of impact might this behaviour have on identity, beauty and confidence? What happens when your self doesn’t look like your selfie or when we all aim for a single version of beauty?? In a post-covid world, does that even matter anymore?
Listen to Melissa Eshaghbeigi the empathetic + ugly future of social media
Here Nikolas Badminton and Melissa get into the good, great, bad, ugly, and terrifying future of social media and what it can be. Creative, empathetic, and a platform to encourage cultural change.
Read ‘We need to talk about WAP’
Last year a viral moment brought attention to the radicalized way our culture views Black women, their confidence, sexuality, and agency – read more here.
Please contact Nikolas Badminton to discuss speaking with or booking Melissa – here.
See more of Nikolas’ thoughts on his personal website.
