Post-pandemic, a wave of economic nationalism and the collapse of middlemen via TikTok Shop has made local products cheaper, cooler, and more accessible than imports.

Indonesian youth are — intensely local (yet global in taste), religious yet pragmatic, and highly entrepreneurial. Trends spread fastest from Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Jakarta’s southern suburbs outward, but always get reinterpreted with local humor, language, and economic constraints.

This has birthed a quiet activism. Unlike the Reformasi protests of 1998, today's activism is digital and aesthetic. The protests and the omnibus law demonstrations were organized via meme pages and Instagram stories. Indonesian youth will fight for climate justice, but they will do it while wearing thrifted Carhartt and sipping iced kopi susu .

Indonesia is often called a "Mobile First" nation. For the youth, life happens on a smartphone.