The Content House: How to Make Friends and Influence People…From Home

This article is an excerpt from a new report by Partners in Foresight, The Home of the 2020s: Scenarios for How We Might Live in the Post-Pandemic Future.

3 min readJul 5, 2021

A “collab house” or “content house” is a house where social media influencers live while creating shareable digital content. It is a creative and social media-friendly living environment. In the future, will every house be a content house?

The 2020s could be a decade saturated with media emerging from living spaces designed to generate viral digital content. Young people of all walks of life have grown accustomed to sharing day-to-day life experiences as creators on social media networks such as TikTok — some are well housed and compensated for it, too. Soon, will more of us claim our 15 minutes as a lifestyle influencer? The rising tsunami of “social” can change the places we call home.

According to Kapwing Resources’ “Ultimate TikTok houses List” (2021) content houses today range from the Unexpectd House, where a team of entrepreneurs live as roommates to promote their company, to Honey House, a couples-only group of self-employed hustlers, while Rihanna’s Fenty makeup formed its own house to promote the brand.

Can the Content Houses of the 2020s change the way we live, learn, work, and play?

Here are some possible outcomes over the next decade of how creators will influence home life, jobs, and educational experiences.

1. VOCATIONAL HOUSE: Young people training to become social influencers while living under one roof

Career path to becoming an Influencer
Students could earn degrees, certificates, grades or course credit based on going viral.
International brands could sponsor study abroad opportunities using a collab house model
Young people could secure housing in exchange for content, rather than pay rent.
Gen Z adopts collab house models to put attention on social or ecological justice issues.

2. CAREER MOVE: Remote work teams co-living in content houses as an organizational strategy

Content designed to increase employee engagement and build culture, while informing PR strategy.
Collab houses could produce exclusive content to form the basis of new marketing campaigns or provide employee and customer incentives.
Recruits/trainees/interns may inhabit a collab house to provide a streaming feed for on-the-job employee surveillance.

3. INFLUENCER LIFE: Transforming personal life stories into valuable viral content

Spotlight on pets, home design, and wellness.
Brand sponsorship of family events, activities, and holidays corresponding with sales and product launches.
Corporate access to extended family, life stages and phases.
Streaming weddings, births, and celebrations.
Reality shows following everyday people as a household’s main source of income.

View the full report The Home of the 2020s: Scenarios for How We Might Live in the Post-Pandemic Future: https://bit.ly/2TbCYf2