Remember when everyone was all big into Duck Dynasty? Or how about the time when it was cool to quote Borat every other sentence? Mah wiiiife! Yeah, we’re shuddering too.
The thing is, trends come and go. (Which is, um, why they’re called “trends.”) It’s a natural occurrence that happens in the inexorable march of time: things become insanely popular for awhile, and then people start talking about them less and less. And then one day, you realize you haven’t seen a one of those “What X thinks I do” career memes on Facebook in months…and you really don’t mind.
But leave it to Reddit to jog your memory of everything that’s come and quietly gone in the past several years. When user TDA12345 asked the question “What trend is finally dying down?” Redditors everywhere dug through their minds and came up with a great list of items. Some even thought of the exact things that are filling the downward-trend void.
So what have you not even realized you’ve been missing? Check it out:
Life Hacks
User ahxMad got a good response with the comment, “calling every f***ing thing ‘hack’,” to which 14_below replied with a hack-y quip:
LIFE HACK: wash your face EVERY day to prevent acne outbreaks!!!!!
LIFE HACK: make your coffee machine ready the night before so you just have to turn it on in the morning!
LIFE HACK: take a picture of your turds to intimidate your family!
jesus shit im so glad thats over.
Jimjamjelly stepped in to point out the thing that life hacks are being replaced with, though — Life Pro Tips:
Now it’s just bullshit LPT’s. “Wanna make friends? Strike up conversation with others and find a common interest!”
Well knock me down with a fucking feather.
Side note: Redditors can be funny as hell.
Keep Calm And…
SeeksNewWay pointed out the recent lack of shirts and memes telling everyone to Keep Calm, with the comment, “Idiots with “Keep Calm and…” shirts. Those Chive following types probably still do it.”
Sixisdead, though, argued that the shirts are still out there, haunting everyone with their un-trendiness:
I saw “Keep Calm I’m a Cheer Mom” this weekend.
I almost said something, but I could tell by her haircut that she’d get a manager involved.
User fairly_bookish brought up the most current “Keep Calm…” replacement:
At least in my area, it’s been replaced by shirts ripping off Straight Outta Compton.
“Straight Outta _______” and whatever the person’s hometown is.
No, dumbass, you are not Ice Cube.
Minions
User Codoro pointed out something we all forgot we’d been missing, with the comment, “Been a while since I’ve seen Minions on FB thankfully.”
RJB6 agreed, stating “I try not to comment about how it’s died off because I’m afraid FB’s algorithms will think I want to see more,” while Lampshade_express wrote, “Clearly you don’t have enough menopausal aunts on your friend list.”
Luckily, nothing seems to have stepped up to replace the Minions…but that doesn’t mean the void will remain forever. Disney and Universal are always coming out with cute cartoons, like it’s their business or something.
Chatty Copy
What exactly is “chatty copy?” User jonmds explained with this comment:
I write advertisements and for years there has been a trend of talking to the customer like your best friend. The most popular example of chatty copy would be innocent smoothies; they are the reason the water fountain at your gym has a sign saying ‘drink me!’ or more likely ‘top up your H2O, bro’ instead of just ‘water’. Anyway that trend won’t be around much longer, it turns out people are a bit fed up of their banks talking to them like they’re 10 years old. In chatty’s place though we unfortunately now have ‘artisan’, the trend in which everything is handmade-this and small batch-that. So get ready for your new hand-prepared current accounts crafted from decades of banking pedigree.
Jonosvision’s reply is pretty much what all of us not in advertising are thinking: “Huh, I never knew that had a name until just now, and still I’m happy it’s going.”
User plokool, though, still sees it in one particular area — and wishes it would disappear altogether:
Can it go away in error messages too? It’s always either a cryptic code that’s useless unless you’re an expert or the answer is Googleable and the problem doesn’t prevent that, or it’s something like “Whoops! Looks like one of the gnomes we have turning the wheels got a splinter! Try again later.” Just tell me what the problem is!
Duck Face
Everyone’s favorite selfie pose from 2010 seems to have fallen off the map, said user rnmalnb90, with the comment, “Duck face!!!! Thank god! It’s still running rampant but it’s certainly less than it once was.”
But that doesn’t mean annoying selfies are gone forever. As kfijatass pointed out, “It got replaced by that stupid dog filter,” while Its_Wild_Bill added, “Don’t forget the flower crown filter too!” Oh, Snapchat. We do love you right now, don’t we?
Other trends were mentioned, too — everything from bacon to truck nuts to laugh tracks to arbitrary hashtags. But the most insightful comment goes to FuzzyDonelop, who wrote:
Buying the biggest house you can barely afford so you can work for 30 years and hate your life.
Edit: Wow, my most up voted comment ever. A lot of salty people commenting who are missing the point: You don’t have to do what everyone else does. Happiness is relative.
We tend to agree with FuzzyDonelop — small living certainly is becoming the next hot trend among Millennials, who are downsizing and living in everything from hand-built pod bedrooms to pre-fabricated mini apartments. (Although it makes us wonder what’s next in the housing trend.)
What’s Next
https://www.instagram.com/p/BK_lkLxj_9O/
Speaking of what’s next, catching the up-and-coming trends can be a bit trickier, but if there’s a natural source for tracking the Next Big Thing, it’s Pinterest. The company takes note of what people are pinning more and more of, and reports on those trends every month on their blog.
As of three days ago, the next thing was watercolor tattoos — pins of the pretty, pretty ink-spiration are up on the site by 70%. People are also pinning so-called “leaf-peeping” trips like mad, something that’s appropriate for the season but might also become A Thing, what with everyone making seasonal bucket lists these days.
One trend the folks at Pinterest say isn’t about to die down any time soon: bacon. That’s in direct opposition to what Reddit says, but if there’s any trend we’re happy to see stick around, it’s bacon. Because it’s not even a trend. It’s a lifestyle.
