The Thing About Trends
Do you remember when peace signs were “the trend?” I’m thinking like early 2000s not the 1960-70s. I’m talking peace sign wall decor, peace sign outfits,”throwing up the peace sign” hand gesture, and even peace sign earrings! If you think this is crazy, it 100% is….but I’d also be lying to you if I said my friends and I weren’t the BIGGEST culprits of the peace sign fad.
What’s interesting to me is that this symbol being everywhere obviously wasn’t new, and had been used in decades past. Even so, the trend seemed like it took over for some time, and now is just a distant memory we look back and cringe at while seeing old photos.
This concept of trends fading in and out isn’t a new idea, and has been happening ever since humans have had capacity to start something and copy each other. But I wonder what makes these ideas so appealing? What makes everyone want to start “hopping on the trend?” Is it weird for those who have lived through both the time of the original trend and its rebirth?
The popular “trend” I see taking over the internet now (even though it’s an app so I guess it’s bigger than a trend) is definitely Tik Tok. Don’t get me wrong, dancing with my little sister or making funny videos to pre-existing sounds is super fun (I’ve guiltily tried to learn a popular dance on the app, “the renegade,” hundreds of times)!
But I remember when Tik Tok first came out, people were skeptical and hesitant to join. I remember thinking to myself, “that’s not very original” or “it’s just a copy of the old app, Vine.” Whether that’s true or not, the app seemed to take off overnight!
So this has me thinking back to my 8 year-old peace sign-loving self. Could she have started a trend? Does the trend have to be something extraordinarily new to catch people’s attention? Or does just the right person being bored enough to copy someone get a trend started?
I’m sure there’s a ton of research done about this, but honestly, how do we know the definite answers? Maybe I’m overanalyzing or maybe I’m just super bored myself! Who knows, but I’m excited to see (and probably take part in) whatever trends come in the future!
