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The odd correlation of social acceptance and norms in correlation of what’s currently trending.
From microtrends to general trends, things such as baggy jeans, “old money” clothing, and ironically, reading, didn’t just become “cool” overnight. In our current society, algorithms push out these trends, whatever they can market and profit on.
This isn’t some conspiracy or phenomenon either. If you take a good look at people at a mall or even your friends’ social media posts, we see a correlation: repetition of current clothing styles, songs, or even texting styles. Yet this chips away at something that used to make the human race so beautiful and unique.
We used to be ourselves.
Clothing was a form of expressing your personality, and now it’s marketed and a contributing factor to severe overconsumption in fast fashion. Music was an escape from the real world; now we feel inclined to listen to industry plants and other singers simply because “that’s what everyone else is listening to.”
Individuality used to be a risk worth taking. Now it’s something we avoid.
Yet we begin to ask the question of how we got here. To put it simply: short-form content or “reels” and systemic algorithms on social media. A rise in less individualistic posting from peers makes people feel less inclined to create, leaving space for a specific type of content to rise above an unmotivated audience.
Influencers, advertisements, and commercials.
We changed the gears of social media from creation to consumption. Instead of posting daily insights of life, we now see the insights of influencers talking about the next “hot” crop-top of the year or Aeropostale’s 50% off sale.
We starve ourselves, and ultimately the algorithm, of genuine content, forcing it to show each person “individualized” content that still spreads the same clothes, songs, and aesthetics across everyone’s feed.
The main question is how did we get here? How did we go from Sambas to obsessing over philosophers, being offline, and deep, intellectual novels like War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy?
It’s simple once again, rebranded and wrapped in a different bow with sparkly new wrapping paper. We’ve exhausted online consumption, and now, with higher awareness of social media’s consequences, we advertise the “escape” or the “aesthetic” of not being chronically online on TikTok and Instagram. It’s ironic, but we eat it up every single time.
Which ultimately leads me to the dystopian label of this systemic “trending” system. From books to singers, we’re given an illusion: an illusion to choose from an algorithm that “we” choose, a market that “we” buy from, and a life that “we” live, yet one that seems pre-approved alongside our peers.
We are offered choices, but only within a narrow, pre-approved range.
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