2025 made people have a situationship with the real world

New Delhi: “Digital is the new norm.”

Even saying it out loud now feels a little dated.

Digital is no longer the new world. It is simply the world. The place where people discover brands, binge shows, order groceries, argue with strangers and build entire personalities. It is fast, frictionless and always on.

Everything is available instantly. Nothing ever really ends.

But 2025 did something unexpected.

With their eyes still glued to screens, people began stealing glances at the real world. Across cities, age groups and categories, real-world experiences began drawing people out again. Walk-in retail. Concerts. Live sports. Pop-ups. Exhibitions. Marathons. Screenings. Community events.

This was not digital fatigue in the dramatic, log-off-forever sense. Phones did not disappear. Feeds did not empty. But something shifted. People were no longer fully satisfied living life only through a screen.

The real world started to feel interesting again. Not as a replacement. Not as an escape. But as something worth stepping into, occasionally and with intent.

A situationship with the real world.

People showed up. They stood in queues. Sweated through concerts. Wandered through stores. Ran marathons. Attended screenings. They lived the moment and then went back online to post about it, archive it, and move on.

No full commitment. No permanent shift. Just presence, in bursts.

When digital stopped feeling exciting

One reason this shift feels sharper in 2025 is that digital stopped being aspirational. It became infrastructure.

Streaming platforms, social media and e-commerce are no longer exciting spaces. They are utilities. Like electricity. Like UPI. Always on and rarely questioned. Nobody marvels at a feed loading anymore. It is simply expected to work.

Endless scrolls and bottomless libraries have blurred experience into one long continuous now. Everything is available, everywhere, all the time. Nothing truly begins, and nothing quite ends.

When access is guaranteed, anticipation loses its edge.

Why the physical world feels new again

What changed was not the physical world itself, but how it was perceived.

Real-world experiences offer something that digital platforms still struggle to replicate. Constraint.

Showing up physically takes effort. You have to step out. Factor in traffic. Block time. Coordinate plans.

There is friction. And in 2025, friction started to feel valuable.

Live events end. Stores shut for the day. Experiences do not loop endlessly or wait for you to return. Miss it, and it is gone.

That impermanence gives moments weight.

1. Faith and footfall

Nothing illustrated this better than the Maha Kumbh Mela 2025.

With nearly 60 crore people gathering at the Sangam for a once-in-144-years moment, the world’s largest pilgrimage became a scale digital can only gesture at, never replicate.

This was not a pop-up or a branding playground. It was a living system where presence demanded restraint, usefulness and respect.

Brands that worked did not shout. They showed up. Coca-Cola focused on hydration and sustainability. HUL leaned into hygiene and community kitchens. Asian Paints became wayfinding landmarks. UltraTech quietly handled waste. Havells offered warmth. Amazon offered beds. Park+ organised parking. Flipkart told stories.

Not everything landed cleanly. Some activations sparked debate. But the lesson was clear. When people gather for meaning rather than entertainment, brands have to slow down, serve first, and earn the right to be there.

Some moments cannot be scaled. They can only be entered.

2. Living live

India’s live entertainment story also found its stride in 2025. What was once fragmented is now formalising into big business.

According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the organised live events segment grew 15% in 2024, adding an estimated Rs 13 billion in revenue.

Concerts evolved from one-night outings into repeatable platforms. Global and Indian artists packed venues across metros and Tier 2 cities. Premium tickets sold out. Brand partnerships surged.

From Coldplay and Travis Scott filling stadiums to Diljit Dosanjh turning Punjabi pop into a national movement to Tyla, Akon and Cigarettes After Sex pulling diverse crowds, concerts became moments people planned their lives around.

You could not rewind them. You could not multitask through them. You had to be there, fully and briefly, before returning online to relive them through clips and reels.

3. Back to the big screen

The comeback also played out in dark theatres.

After years of uneven recovery, 2025 gave multiplexes momentum. Films like Kantara and Dhurandhar did not just perform well. They pulled people out of homes.

Big releases across languages turned movie-going back into an event. Packed shows. Long popcorn lines. Collective gasps and applause.

Streaming stayed. But for stories that demanded immersion, the living room felt too small.

Some narratives still work best when everyone presses play at the same time.

4. Browsing. For real.

Retail had its own revival. Not the collapse of e-commerce, but the return of the walk-in.

People stepped into stores without a shopping list. They touched fabrics. Tried things on. Wandered aisles. Asked questions they could have Googled.

Pop-ups and high-street stores drew footfall not because they were cheaper, but because they were tangible.

Brands followed. Snitch pushed aggressive store expansion. Suta turned browsing into belonging. The Body Shop leaned back into walk-ins. Even Swiggy opened its first Instamart store, turning convenience into something you could physically enter.

Buying online remained efficient. But efficiency was not the point anymore.

Walking in became a small act of intention.

People also began choosing meet-ups that did not feel transactional. Experiential hubs like 32nd Avenue became places to linger. Coffee turned into conversations. Dinner stretched into music and workshops.

At scale, properties like Nykaaland and Zomaland drew crowds not just with celebrities or discounts, but with curated experiences designed to be spent inside.

Across cities, workshops, wellness circles, pottery classes, book readings and creator meet-ups filled up. Smaller groups. Shared tables. Actual eye contact.

You showed up. You stayed present. You left with fewer photos and better memories.

Presence without commitment

The defining trait of this shift is intentionality.

People still discover events online, book tickets digitally and share moments on social platforms. The real world has not replaced digital. It has been re-entered on negotiated terms.

The situationship analogy holds because commitment is partial. There is excitement and emotional payoff, but no permanent relocation. Digital remains the base layer. The physical world becomes the highlight.

Today’s experiences are built with digital awareness. They expect to be photographed and shared. But their value lies in being lived.

In a crowded digital life, physical experiences offer emotional contrast. They interrupt routine. They ground people. Even solitary activities can feel more real than a thousand notifications.

What 2025 reveals

If 2020 to 2022 accelerated digital adoption, 2025 revealed digital limits. Not in function, but in fulfilment.

The renewed pull of physical experiences does not threaten digital ecosystems. It completes them. Digital enables discovery. The real world delivers memory.

2025 is not the year people returned to the real world. It is the year they started choosing it again.

A situationship, by definition, is unresolved. It involves attraction, hesitation and negotiation.

That is exactly where people stand with the real world today.

Not fully committed.

But showing up again.