In our increasingly digital world, people are consuming content at a faster rate than ever before from social media and streaming platforms to blogs, podcasts and more. However, how people engage with digital content varies significantly depending on their age, stages of life and internal needs. What grabs the attention of a 28-year-old is very different from what resonates with someone in their late fifties.

This article explores how individuals between the ages of 25 and 65 interact with digital content, uncovering the psychological and emotional drivers behind their choices. By breaking this broad age range into distinct life stages, we can gain a deeper understanding of what people are seeking—both consciously and unconsciously—and how their digital habits reflect their values, challenges, and desires.

Let’s look into various age groups.



Young Professionals (Aged 25–35): Seeking Inspiration, Belonging and Quick Rewards

In their mid-twenties to early thirties, many people are just finding their feet in adult life. They’re climbing the career ladder, building relationships, and trying to discover who they are. Unsurprisingly, their content choices reflect this stage of exploration and self-expression.

This group spends a lot of time on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, drawn to short-form videos, viral trends, fitness challenges and influencer culture. They are into motivational clips, fitness routines, aesthetic lifestyle content, fashion advice, and anything that sparks immediate emotional impact. For many, social media isn’t just a distraction, it’s a tool for self-development, connection, and validation.


Take, for example, the character Yin from the book ‘Hooked’ by Nir Eyal. In her mid-twenties, Yin became engaged in the cycle of sharing and consuming content online, particularly on Instagram. She represents a generation that uses digital platforms not only for entertainment, but also to construct and present idealised versions of themselves.

Psychosocial Insights

Psychologist Erik Erikson described this life phase as “Intimacy vs Isolation”. Young adults are driven to build meaningful relationships and establish their identity. Digital content that encourages self-expression, offers quick emotional highs, and connects them to like-minded communities becomes especially powerful. Following trends and sharing updates isn’t just about fun—it’s a way to feel seen, heard and part of something bigger.

Psychoanalytical Insights

From a psychoanalytic perspective, this age group often experiences tension between their emerging self-image and the desire for external approval. Their obsession with likes, comments, and shares reflects deeper unconscious needs for affirmation, recognition, and even love. Fitness videos and fashion influencers represent aspirational versions of themselves, allowing them to play with identity and experiment with how they want to be perceived.



Established Careerists (Aged 36–45): Balancing Ambition and Responsibility

By their late thirties and early forties, many people are settled into their careers, often juggling the demands of work and family life. Their digital consumption shifts accordingly.

They still use social media, but their focus leans towards LinkedIn, Twitter, or professional YouTube content. They follow thought leaders, productivity gurus, parenting coaches and financial advisors. They are interested in content that helps them be better professionals, better parents, and better versions of themselves.

Streaming habits also change. Instead of endless scrolling through short clips, they favour documentaries, crime thrillers, and family dramas – content that stimulates the mind but also allows them to unwind after a busy day.

Take, for example the character of Miranda Priestly from movie “The Devil Wears Prada”. While Miranda may be older than the typical age bracket, she embodies the intensity of mid-career success and the pressure to maintain status, reputation, and excellence. For someone in their late 30s or early 40s, the drive to achieve career recognition and balance personal life is deeply relatable. Her character represents the high-functioning professional who might consume content related to leadership, work-life balance, and productivity—not just for ambition, but to hold onto control in a chaotic world.

Psychosocial Insights

This age group is rooted in Erikson’s “Generativity vs Stagnation” stage. People in this phase aim to contribute something meaningful—through work, parenting, or personal projects. The content they consume often supports their growth, achievement, and legacy-building, while helping them manage the stress of modern adult life.

Psychoanalytical Insights

Psychoanalytically, many individuals at this stage wrestle with the gap between their early ideals and their current reality. Consuming professional development content or family-centred material isn’t just practical—it helps them manage underlying anxieties about success, relevance, and purpose. It reassures them that they are on the right path, even if life didn’t turn out exactly as imagined.

Midlife Seekers (Aged 46–55): Reflecting, Rebalancing and Reclaiming Vitality

Midlife is a powerful transition point. Individuals in their late forties and early fifties start turning inward, reflecting on what they have achieved and what still lies ahead. Digital content becomes less about trends and more about well-being, personal growth, and sometimes, nostalgia.

They are drawn to content that promotes physical health, mental clarity, and emotional balance things like yoga tutorials, mindfulness podcasts, and wellness blogs. But equally, they enjoy revisiting music, fashion, and culture from their youth, which offers comfort and connection to earlier, simpler times.

They may also explore motivational talks, life coaching, or spiritual content, seeking answers to bigger life questions and craving deeper emotional experiences.

Take, for example, the character of Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame. Tony, now older and a father, steps back from his chaotic lifestyle to focus on family and reflection. His eventual return to action is motivated not by ego, but legacy and love. He embodies the midlife seeker wrestling with purpose, mortality, and what truly matters health, family, and meaning.

Psychosocial Insights

This age group continues to navigate Erikson’s stage of Generativity vs Stagnation, but with added urgency. The awareness of ageing and the limits of time leads to a greater focus on purpose, health, and lasting impact. Their content choices often reflect this need for reassurance and clarity: Am I living well? Have I made a difference?

Psychoanalytical Insights

Unconsciously, midlife can stir up complex emotions regret, loss, pride, longing. Engaging with nostalgic media helps individuals reconnect with parts of themselves they may have left behind. Meanwhile, their interest in self-care and wellness is an effort to maintain a sense of control and vitality in the face of ageing. These digital habits become ways of managing inner shifts and redefining identity.



Legacy Builders (Aged 55–65): Finding Comfort, Connection and Meaning

In later stages of adulthood, focus often shifts towards reflection and legacy. Retirement (or the thought of it) becomes more real, and many individuals start focusing on family, health and the meaning of their life so far.

This group engages with community-focused content, retirement planning advice, family updates, and travel blogs. They enjoy content about grandparenting, local culture, and historical documentaries. On platforms like Facebook, they stay connected with loved ones, share family photos, and take pleasure in revisiting memories.

Streaming preferences tend to lean toward comforting shows, historical dramas, and films that explore life lessons, triumphs and relationships.

Take, for example, Carl Fredricksen from the movie Up. Carl is a widower in his 60s, reflects on a life filled with love, missed opportunities, and the ache of growing older. His adventure is symbolic of legacy-building and finding meaning beyond traditional roles. His connection to past memories and his evolving bond with others reflects the type of nostalgic and family-oriented content many in this group gravitate toward.

Psychosocial Insights

Erikson’s final stage, Integrity vs Despair, defines this period. Individuals are looking back on their lives, asking: Was it meaningful? Am I proud of who I have become? Content that reinforces family ties, personal history, or spiritual insight plays a key role in helping people feel connected, accomplished and at peace.

Psychoanalytical Insights

Psychoanalytically, the consumption of reflective and nostalgic content allows individuals to process the passage of time. Rewatching classic films or following family updates isn’t just sentimental, it’s an attempt to weave the past into the present, maintaining a sense of continuity. It also helps mitigate feelings of loneliness, decline, or fear of irrelevance, offering a form of symbolic immortality through connection and storytelling.

Conclusion: A Mirror to Our Inner World

Across every life stage, digital content isn’t just entertainment – it’s a mirror. Whether we are chasing likes, learning how to parent, listening to mindfulness podcasts or watching a documentary about the 90s, we are often revealing far more about ourselves than we realise.

Digital habits may be shaped by life stage, but they also express deeper needs: the need to grow, connect, reflect, and find meaning. A 25-year-old posting outfit selfies and a 60-year-old watching a wartime drama are both seeking something valuable identity, validation, comfort, or legacy.

By understanding these patterns, content creators, marketers, and mental health professionals can create more empathetic, purposeful and resonant content that meets people not just where they are in life, but also where they are within themselves.