Blog 4
Done Reading? Self Expression as a "Trend"
i think we've all seen a recent growth in trends where people want to "bring back" certain eras and ages of the internet: 2025 saw people attempting to revive tiktok's 2020 era, and for as far as we know of 2026, weve already seen people rally to bring the vibes of 2016. some might find it annoying and repetitive, but i personally think there's more to it than people realize. people want to bring back older eras of the internet because those eras had less hostility in response to self expression. this isnt to say that every year that people get nostalgic over are at all void of flaws. 2016 had clown sightings and the election, and 2020 had a pandemic that killed millions of people. however, people can acknowlegde the fact that these eras werent perfect and still be nostalgic for them... which seems to be a concept a lot of people dont understand. due to tiktok's "endless scrolling" format that became integrated on many other platforms, people have far less of an active choice in what content they want to see: content is thrown at you in an endless stream, rather than you picking what post you want to see. the more interaction you give to that content, the more of it youll see- and a lot of people get a bit too offended when seeing content they dont want to on a supposedly personalized feed... so much so that they feel the need to attack the poster of that content for whatever reason seems fit.
people miss the days of the internet where not meeting a random stranger's standards wasnt seen as an inherent moral failing. 2016 was an era where almost everything had so much more color and pop to it- fashion was colorful, technology had more of a visual spunk to it, and the internet's humor was far more varied and took way longer to die out. 2020's quarantine may have been a difficult time, but for a lot of people it was an unavoidable chance to actually sit down and figure themselves out as people- whether it be experimenting with their fashion choices or finding new ways to explain their identity. people miss when they could wear bright flashy makeup and experiment with labels without someone being an ass about it, so they start trends like this to see if the idea will land- appealing to people's sense of nostalgia for how much more fun or simple those times were and using that appeal to support self acceptance and exploration, because people are much more likely to buy into the idea if they think it's trending.
i dont know how many people will actually end up reading this, but if these trends annoy you... you dont have to participate. a lot of people act like they're being forced to follow these trends when they arent, which seems kinda like self projection to me: they're so used to "nudging" people into following what's trending by indicating the alternative things they like are "wrong" (typically through bullying or hate posts) that they feel like people are forcing them to participate in these trends by posting about their enjoyment of them. at the end of the day, as much as i wish people knew that you dont need a social media trend to learn self acception, these trends are pretty harmless at their worst, and fun to participate in at their best.