Next.js changes how data fetching works compared to plain React by moving it to the server via Server Components. Instead of useEffect and useState with loading spinners, you can use async/await directly in components. The post also covers Next.js caching strategies: force-cache for static content, no-store for always-live data, revalidate (ISR) for periodically refreshing data, and revalidatePath for on-demand cache invalidation triggered by user actions or CMS events. A practical guide on choosing the right strategy based on how often data changes is included, along with a note that Next.js 15 changed the default caching behavior to off.