Social media has grown exponentially, especially during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and with it the trend cycle has begun to shrink. With the click of a button, you can see what celebrities have started wearing and what’s trendy at that exact moment. The issue is that everyone is looking for exclusivity.
Each person following a new trend wants to imitate the trendsetters, who are typically the upper-classes and A-list celebrities. People want to be part of an exclusive club that others admire.
But once everyone starts to get their hands on a trend, it becomes too popular, and the upper classes and, more recently, social media users find another way to differentiate themselves, giving way to a new trend.
This cycle has happened for centuries, however, as Vogue content editor Gladys Lai argues, social media has created an environment for this cycle to speed up. She believes that because everyone is seeing a trend virtually at the same time, it quickly spreads to the masses, quickly giving way to the upper-class desire for differentiation.
But not only has the trend cycle sped up, but the pool of trendsetters has increased. With influencers popping up left and right, trends are being adopted–and forgotten–more quickly than ever. People see someone wearing something in one video and scramble to buy it immediately and this is what enables the “microtrend.”
The “microtrend” is, ironically, a term that was recently popularized on TikTok, describing a “one-off, short-lived trend” in a “specific market or sector.” These trends are typically smaller in scope, but with platforms like TikTok making people go viral left and right, these trends gain larger audiences. The apparent virality and popularity of the items these TikToks promote encourages people to impulse buy whatever they are presenting.
But this has become exhausting. Keeping up with social media’s fashion trends is seemingly impossible and because of this, many internet users have become upset with those following microtrends.
And yes, macrotrends might be better, but with the way trends seem to be going, the 20-year fashion cycle might be dying out. So if in 5 or 10 years, what you’re buying to look stylish now is no longer in style, was it worth buying in the first place?
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