Thanks to social media, even the most bizarre trends have serious potential to go viral. From dumping ice water on our heads for ALS awareness to watching absurd videos of teenagers doing the Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge, you’d be hard pressed to find a dull moment. Yea, okay, social media has its drawbacks. It highlights our more perfect moments, and shies away from the embarrassing slip-ups, walks of shame, and micro failures of our days.
So why do we love social media? My theory is that it’s less about keeping up with our friends and family, although that’s great. What makes social media so powerful, and why it has such a tight grip on our day-to-day lives, is the ability for it to connect us to people all over the world. Social media trends merely put into play our enthusiasm to participate in this global movement online. So here it is, from thigh brows to cats dressed as Donald Trump, we’ve compiled a list of 14 current social media trends you probably haven’t heard of yet.
14 Models being funny on social media
Traditionally, social media has shown the luxurious side of the model lifestyle. It’s been pretty serious, filled with glamour shots and captions filled with dull shoutouts to camera crews and producers. But not so much anymore, after Cara Delevigne inspired an entire generation of models to come out about the absurdity of their day-to-day lives with humor. Check out @TildaLindstam for hilarious model humor. She recently posted a picture, half nude after a heavy night of drinking, backstage at the Dior fashion show in front of two sleeping models. “Thank you and I’m sorry.” Another gem is a photo of Tilda at a typical fitting, “a stranger safety pinning my butt at work rn.”
13 Teens wearing nothing but shopping bags
These teens are taking reusing and recycling plastic to the next level – they are stripping down to nothing but 7-Eleven shipping bags and posting selfies on Instagram. The social media trend is booming in Taiwan, among both men and women. These innovators are benefiting from the concept of affordable fashion. Power to them, I guess… Who needs clothing anyways?
12 #Extremephonepinching
In an age when your phone may be your true best friend, what’s more exhilarating than posting a picture of your precious mobile cargo dangling over some hazardous backdrop? People are finding entertainment in taking pictures while holding their phones over waterfalls, cliffs, toilets, sewer drains, stairs etc. These people figure they’ll risk breaking their expensive smart phone for a few more likes. The trend took off after the American duo, Twenty One Pilots, posted a phone pinching video that went viral.” No offense to these daredevils, but part of me thinks, maybe we just had to be there?
11 Trump Your Cat
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Donald Trump’s comb over looks purr-fect on these Instagram cats. The trending tag #TrumpYourCat has around 12,000 photos. The main account reaches almost 20,000 followers, and has its own site, trumpyourcat.biz. Apart from all the media-hype bashing Trump recently, we’ve got to give it to him for being such a wonderful source of entertainment these past few months. “Thank you, Trump,” said cat lovers everywhere.
10 Australian Insta-famous teens
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When you imagine an insta-worthy picture, you’d be hard pressed to find something that beats the beach in Australia, hanging out with surfers and wearing boho-chic clothing. Imagine getting paid to tag brands in your photos, frolicking around nature and posing with free clothes you get in the mail. Tori Levett @torilevett, and Alex Hayees @alexhayees are examples of two self-made Instagram stars, who say they receive hundreds of free things, and get paid generously through their side-hustle of insta-fame. Many in Australia have found this lucrative career before graduating high school, living life in the media throughout puberty. Talk about growing up fast.
9 Thighbrows, the new thigh gap
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“Thighbrows” refer to the creases below the hip and the thighs that appear when us women drop down low. Unlike the thigh gap that made you want to skip your breakfast and reevaluate your life; the thighbrow doesn’t depict an unrealistic version of women. Although it’s probably just as bizarre of a social media trend as the thigh gap, it’s easier to reproduce. Beyonce, the Kardashians and other celebs have flaunted the thighbrow. Best way to accentuate your thighbrow? Throw on a high-waisted 80s bathing suit.
8 “The Frozen Chook”
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Chook is the slang term for chicken in New Zealand. There’s now a bizarre trend of naked men curling up into a ball and posing like a frozen chicken. This is definitely one of those social media trends that has no purpose, rather than the absolute bafflement of society. The pictures don’t expose any of the naked men parts, since they are taken from the side. My question is, who’s taking these photos? Check out the Frozen Chook website and the Frozen Choock Facebook page if you still don’t believe me. What’s more, most of the photos are taken outside in public, and/or in the cold weather. Gravy, anyone?
7 Flaunting stretch lines
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The general trend of women acting more comfortable in their own skin has prompted a new trend towards exposing stretch marks. The fabulous Chrissy Teigen vows to never use Photoshop again, and told Meredith Vieria, the talk show host, “I think we forgot what normal people look like now.” As a successful TV persona, model, and activist, she’s more than just John Legend’s wife. And apparently she just doesn’t have the time or patience for photo enhancing apps at this point. She’s received an outpour of support, and inspired women all over the world to let it all hang out post-pregnancy. You go, Chrissy.
6 Rise of the stolen joke police
That’s right. You thought the Internet was too big to find you, eh? In fact, the widespread use of social media and the advent of data technology have made it relatively easy to spot a joke thief. Twitter hides and deletes posts on the grounds of illegal plagiarism, and deems the original poster as possessing the copyright. @TheFatJewish got a lot of heat recently for not giving proper credit to all of his photos, memes, jokes, etc. He apologized and began going back to try and find the true source of all of his content. Time to own up and make your own material, or get out your lawyers.
5 Twin Strangers Project
For those looking for there very own doppelganger. Niamh Geaney explains finding her lookalike on this BBC podcast. After going in on a bet with two of her friends regarding who could find their “Twin Stranger” the fastest, it took Niamh just two weeks to find her first one, who lived in Ireland also. She then met a second look-alike all the way in Genoa, Italy. You can register with the site in exchange for a small fee, if finding your twin excites you rather than weirds you out. The Twin Strangers Facebook page posts a Twin Strangers Match of the Day. Yep, every day. Their tagline is, “they say there are 7 people in the world who look exactly like you… we want to find OUR Twin Strangers.”
4 Hangover makeup
Oh no, we’re not talking about the makeup that you use to cover up your hangover in order to make it out of bed to Brunch without someone calling the cops on you. This hangover makeup trend is most popular in Japan and Korea, where women are actually trying to make themselves look hung-over. These girls blend their makeup to create darker circles around the eyes, and use blush to create more of the “I didn’t sleep last night” flushed look on their cheeks.
3 Symmetrical food pictures
A spin off of #foodgasm and the all-to-well-known food porn is the symmetrical food pictures. It’s enough to wait for your friend, climbing up onto restaurant chairs like a legit monkey taking photos of brunch while you anxiously stare at your meal. It’s another thing when the plates have to be arranged for a perfectly symmetrical shot. A pristine example is the @symmetrybreakfast, over 430,000 followers strong.
2 Glitter roots
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Glitter roots; like lice, but sparkly and put into hair on purpose. Search the hashtag #glitterroots and you’ll find pictures of crazy hairstyles that strategically flaunt the roots of hair sparkled with rainbow glitter. How to get the best glitter roots shot? Apparently you need to apply a lot of hairspray to get the suckers to stick in. If you’re into that kind of stuff, and don’t mind taking an extra long shower to get the product off, by all means bedazzle your followers.
1 Telling the truth on social media
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Let’s be honest, it’s pretty well accepted that we’re all projecting a slightly skewed version of ourselves on social media. For the most part, we aren’t posting on Facebook about our current breakups, tweeting about our dumb ass boss, or posting that picture on Instagram that you made your friend delete due to the nature of your fifth chin. But we forget about this when we view other people’s stuff, i.e. why does everyone look so happy? Does this girl eat, why is she so perfect (F her)? Where are all of my friends and how does one find the time? Australian model, Essena O’Neill has come out to denounce social media, posting a heart-felt YouTube video and changing all of the captions on her Instagram to tell the truth behind the picture. She says she defined by happiness by the number of likes and followers, making her miserable while she portrayed herself as perfect. On a more uplifting note, Rachel Brathen discusses the upside and downside of social media in her Tedx Aruba Talk. (She’s more than just a pretty blonde chick doing yoga on the beach.)
