Current trends start and end within weeks, negative.
In the ’70s, there was a short fad of dressing in chainmail and embroidered babydoll dresses: the medieval trend. In the late 2000s, Julius the sock monkey was on every t-shirt. This year, trends big and small seem to come and go every few months, or weeks, occasionally passing before the trend takes off past the internet.
“I’m fed up with buying stuff for it not to be popular three weeks later. Bows, leopard print, Adidas shoes, slick backs…”@lizziefarrar on Tiktok, the primary social media app where microtrends start, said.
Perhaps modern teen culture is to blame. Social media plays a key role, a primary role, in promoting trends, then wearing them out. Last year had quite the list: clean girl, barbiecore, coquette, tomato girl, mob wife winter, coastal cowgirl—all real trends on different sides of social media.
“I personally believe that these ‘cute,’ catchy names are a marketing trick that causes people to think that they must like or even purchase said items, for fear of not being left out,” Maria Mitko, a teenager in the United Kingdom, stated in an opinion piece from Harbinger’s Magazine.
It’s easy to say that attention spans are getting shorter with each generation, but is there a more complicated reason? Is the debated development of capitalistic issues in America affecting teens more than teens are affecting themselves?
The often accused culprit of promoting the hyper-trend mindset is influencers, using their common catchphrase, “Run, don’t walk!”
“Influencers, in general, are pretty insane to me,” South AVID and English teacher Kenny Koberstein said. “I don’t get them at all, but certain people are addicted to them,”
Though the apprehension toward microtrends is often based on the societal impact, such as discouraging personal expression, there is also a fear of the impact on the environment. According to SustainabilityChic, clothing consumption has risen 400 percent over approximately 20 years. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, the modern fashion industry causes eight to 10 percent of all global carbon emissions.
There can be benefits to this trend, but most of them seem to apply to brands, not the consumers.
It’s clear that the impact of microtrends is becoming less about self-exploration and more a consumerism problem; but what are ways that people can combat the microtrend mindset?
The Axe 