The internet, as a natural reflection of the offline world, is a constantly changing landscape where new trends emerge every day and old ones are forgotten just as quickly, caught up in the next big thing. From fashion and TV shows to songs and memes, they capture our attention for months or years before fading away. But what happens to these forgotten trends that were once so popular that they dominated our feeds, conversations, and pop culture? Do they disappear into the abyss of the web, a testament to the ever-changing nature of what’s popular and what’s not?
Nope, not today, folks! We planned a first-class trip down memory lane for you. We’ll look back on the trends from our childhood and teenage years, the ones that were once so popular they filled up your entire closet and now feel like they belong to a bygone era. While it’s impossible to keep track of all of them, we were able to include the best once viral trends thanks to the wonders of the internet and its endless trove of information, aka Reddit!
People shared the popular fads that most forgot about, from the early days of the internet when butterfly clips were the must-have 90s fashion accessory to the global obsession with the Harlem Shake and Pokémon Go — the whole package of iconic trends from the past decades! Whether you’re a 90s kid or grew up in the early 2000s, you’re sure to find something that brings back fond memories.
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“Waaaazzzaaaaap”
Wassssaaappppppppppppp....really takes me back to texting with word limits so you wouldn't have to pay for more than one text message. Good ole teen days filled with angst and cringe lol
"What Does The Fox Say?"
My 14yo son LOVED this song just bc my 19yo daughter HATED it
Just go watch Saveafox on Youtube, you'll learn exactly what they say.
"Gangnam Style!"
In Internet years it's probably 253 years ago. (11 x e^π) /s (Yeah, feel the same! Had to look it ut, 2011, as to what i found...! :o )
Load More Replies...When we went to South Korea, we stayed in Gangnam because of this song. It worked out well.
Saw it about three times yesterday. I'm visiting my daughter and her kids (7&4) just LOVE it. Same treatment with Bella Ciao and Wellerman, but those at least I like... or used to ;-))
"Jelly Shoes"
"No one ever talks about little girls wearing jelly shoes in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. When I was a kid, every little girl’s “dress up” shoes were jellies and they all wore them to church, even though they hurt. Only one movie I’ve ever seen has included jelly shoes."
sometimes it left lines on your feet, and not just sweaty but also stinky feet , i had a pair of pink with a flower on.
I had cute purple ones when I was little and my sisters friends little sister stole one and hid it making me walk home with one shoe on. Never got it back either.
I BEGGED to be allowed to get jelly shoes, but I was born with clubbed feet and had to wear orthopedic shoes with proper arch support while I was growing. Looking back, my mom did me a favor in sparing my feet
"Ask Jeeves"
Wish it would come back. Google has become an unending garbage can with ads, and does everything except answer the question you originally asked. What a sad disappointment
Feels like you have to keep adjusting your search phrases to the most arcane and nonsense extreme, while using "" and + just so you don't get a bunch of garbage ads thrown in there.
Load More Replies...Was this really viral? There were a ton of search engines back in the day
I'd say no. Is Google viral? It was a tool if its time. Buy a lot of these lists end up being really lazy.
Load More Replies..."Marbles"
"We played marbles when I was young and I'm 40."
I use to use marbles as Wrist Rocket ammo and I'm in my 60s
Load More Replies...We STILL play with marbles here at home. My Son has a 10 tower Marble Run that spans the entire staircase and it's pretty awesome!
"Pagers"
My dad is a doctor and he had a pager when I was little. I almost took a hammer to it after it woke me up during a movie
With an IT background, I learned very early on to despise these little beacons from hell.
Excuse me that little beacon from hell helped save half the universe.
Load More Replies..."Tamagotchi"
I have an R2D2 one they recently released. Definitely coming back. I had a ton as a kid!
I won one at the fair for 1 euro, I was so happy - it was pretty annoying to have tho
"Butterfly Clips"
How did y'all keep from breaking them???? I could easily break half a pack in a heartbeat every time I tried to use them
Use them on other people's noses instead of for your hair. It was something idiotic my school did last year.
Load More Replies...Still use them and my now 26yr old remember how I use to adorn her hair with them! I loved them!
"Slap Bracelets"
"Very popular in the early '90s."
You mean cheap pieces of measuring tape covered in material?? That the customer gets charged a thousand times more for.
"Macarena"
My Spanish teacher made everyone stand up, and you weren't allowed to sit down until you did the Macarena.
I think I heard one time that the macarena is actually a song about sex.
"Those Shoes With The Wheels In Them... Heelys"
You're welcome: https://www.heelys.eu.com/eu/adults.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA54KfBhCKARIsAJzSrdrIxlhfFvnjfOtg761StpkSVO2ImX-xulEdEsgNgV2_40NT73N176YaAh_gEALw_wcB
Load More Replies...I'm 48 and tried to watch Beavis and Butthead and I was like seriously I used to like this show
First off, huge Beavis and Butt-Head fan, second off, my brother has heelys
My son is on his second pair of these. He loves them. Remember when Usher had a music video where he wore these on the dance floor?
“I am The Great Cornholio. I need TP for my Bunghole. I am Cornholio! I need TP for my Bunghole.”
I'm imagining all the different scenarios that could mean, and it's making me snort laugh
Load More Replies..."Pokémon Go"
"I’ll never forget the summer "Pokémon Go" came out. Everybody and their grandparents were playing it, all the parks were full of people just talking and meeting each other. I hate to sound boomer-y but it made me remember what life was like before smartphones, which is ironic I guess because an app made it happen. I wish more technology had the goal of getting people active and outside and interacting with others."
I still pop it open now and then just to catch some random Pokémon around the house.
Never got into that but I did with the version of Harry Potter but then I got out of that. Don't remember why though 🤔 Maybe I should check it out again
It's still one of the most widely used and profitable app games out there.
I am planning to introduce this to my to be 7 this spring/ summer
"LMFAO"
"LMFAO may be a total trainwreck of a music group, but they were also everywhere in 2011-2013. You couldn't turn on the radio without hearing "I'm s**y and I know it!" played five times in the span of 30 minutes, and "Party rockers in the house tonight!" was a line scream-sung at any nightclub."
Some friends of ours decided to have their bridal party go down the aisle doing a really complicated dance to that song. The dance was truly awful. I'm glad we were warned at the very beginning, because several bridesmaids including myself bowed out of being bridesmaids because of that.
Shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots shots everybody
The guy pictured got married to Belorussian tennis player Viktoria Azarenka, they had a son. But she had to take a load of time off from playing as they had a very messy divorce and custody battle for the son. She won, but is only recently getting back to how good she was.
I think you got the wrong guy here... Viktoria Azarenka had a child with former hockey player Billy McKeague. She briefly dated Stefan Kendal Gordy, a.k.a. Redfoo , but the couple split well over two years before the birth of her child.
Load More Replies..."Planking And Yolo"
James disagrees (with the yolo) you-only-l....12601.jpg
I caught my elderly manager planking in our reach-in freezer one day while the dish guy took a picture for him. We locked eyes and I slowly backed out of the room. We never spoke of it again.
I forgot about planking....gosh. YOLO reminds me of the Lonely Island song and that's pretty fun. Lol
"Cell Phones That Worked Like Walkie Talkies"
"PTT on severe-duty hard-phones is still a thing on some mine sites and oil fields."
There was plenty of phones with this feature, but it wasn't supported by operators. They want your money for calls, not to support technology that will allow free talk time.
I just want to die of natural causes (ie long life) before this whole humanity collapses.
Load More Replies..."Swatch Watches"
"I remember being envious of the kids that had those back in the third grade."
Omg!!!! Remember when Swatch had The FatBoys commercial in the 80's? Too sweet!!!
Load More Replies...Swatch .beat "internet time" was a failed attempt at a fad. Regular Swatch watches are classic.
"Walking Around With A Stereo On Your Shoulder Making You The Coolest Cat Around"
Back in my day those were the s**t! There would be breakdancing contests in my High School parking lot, people would bring big pieces of cardboard and start going to town
My high school band director made a comment about how people only played rock on these. So one afternoon, I took mine for a walk playing a classical tape. Almost caused a car crash when the topless 20-something with the huge filthy truck and the window rolled down heard the bass vocal solo.
"Rat Tails"
They are actually making a strong comeback. Unfortunately
Load More Replies...My nephew who is about 26 still wears a rat tail or a mullet.
I used to have one in high school.....that was a very long time ago though
Me too. But sister cut it off when I was asleep on bus
Load More Replies..."Flappy Bird"
"I still have the original and my high score is 482."
I remember when they took it off the market and people were trying to sell their phones for £1K+ just because it had flappy bird installed lol - I preferred flappy nyan cat.
It was an app game where the goal was to get the bird to fly as far as possible. Only problem was that there were tons of pipes which made it difficult to maneuver the bird around them, causing it to crash.
Load More Replies..."Rainbow Looms"
"Those bracelets that you made with rubber bands on that loom thingy."
I got my daughter one recently (she's nearly 10) and she absolutely loves it!
Dito, mine is 7. These keep popping up every couple years
Load More Replies...The rubber bands always pinched the skin or pulled the hair it hurt
No way - look up "loomiguri" - they're making dragons and all sorts of stuff with these. Hasn't died at all.
"Cabbage Patch Kids"
Yes! I have 2 full sized ones and a mini now but I still search my parents' attic when I visit in search of my childhood one. And it's weird pet friend that was like a koosa head on a small cat body. That one may have been a fever dream though so I don't look too hard for it.
Load More Replies...I had cabbage patch kids and snuck in Garbage Pail kids when I could
My son saved a cabbage patch from the thrift store at the dump. She now sits proudly in my room 🥰
My parents have one of the $150 ones from J. C. Penney's. Mom wasn't willing to embarrass herself by taking the oath in the store, so technically, Olga Caroline is my child. I had her 40 years ago, and she hasn't grown an inch.
"Furby"
"Yo-Yos"
You really don't see yoyos anymore, well not as much as you did back then.
There are yo-yo competitions and the champions are worshipped. Watched a documentary about it about a year ago.
If you don't still see yoyos being used...you're hanging out with the wrong people
I have a few butterfly ones like this. Told my husband I could yoyo and he bought me a bunch, lol.
"Jacks Game"
We had knuckle bones rather than jacks, sometimes made from real sheep knuckles, sometimes plastic ones.
"Alvin And The Chipmunk Remixes"
Had a son in 2003. Gave him his grandfather's name as his middle name. Alvin. We thought we were in the clear. Until 2007. Good thing most kids didn't know that was his middle name. But the ones that did....ALVIN!!!!!! Sorry kid.
How many were there...too many. Similar to the Fast & Furious franchise.
Keep Calm And
"I know it makes lots of people cringe, and rightfully so, but boy does thinking of that period make me nostalgic for middle school. Simpler times."
"Keep Calm" is similar to the "Straight Outta" phase. I wouldn't say cringe, I still chuckle at a good one.
"Pet Rocks"
"I have been breeding them for years."
I got this for a friend a few years back on Christmas as a gag gift. I mean, the novelty wears off fast but it was worth it.
"Fidget Spinners"
"Remember all those pop-up stalls in shopping centers selling fidget spinners? I sure hope they got their money back."
Fidget spinners were originally designed to help people with autism and ADHD relieve their anxiety, then it became a fad, then the fad died out and now the people who the fidget spinners were made for can't use them anymore without being called cringey.
All of the kids at my work love any of the fidget toys we have. I have never heard of anyone saying it was cringe.
Load More Replies...The principal at my elementary school confiscated so many in 2017. She thought that she should leave them in a room full of barely supervised 3rd graders for some insane reason.
Remember the girl who ate part of it and the mom tried to get them outlawed? The girl was like 11/12...
"The Budweiser Frogs"
"Everyone was going around saying, 'Bud.' Someone else would say, 'Wise.' And someone else would say, 'Er.' I even had a couple of different shirts with the sayings on them lol."
Bud Weis Er. Oh the freaking Bud Ice penguins! Dooby dooby doooo. Beware of the penguins
Omg I wish you hadn't brought up the penguins. Now I'm going to have that stuck in my head for a week 😭
Load More Replies..."Tebowing"
"The Cinnamon Challenge Of 2010-11"
There's an episode of mythbusters where one of the hosts completed the challenge. It took 20-30 minutes or something wild. He put the cinnamon directly into his cheek like a squirrel, spent twenty minutes working saliva into it, then swallowed the cinnamon.
I did it in just 45 seconds, you literally just let the saliva soak into the cinnamon
Load More Replies..."The Dress, The Black/Blue Or White/Gold Dress"
"People claimed mental breakdowns over it, personality tests showed up out of nowhere for it. Turned out to be overexposure and terrible filters I think."
Dark Blue and Black - I never understand how people saw white and gold
They have not been using the colour-temperature in an photo editing tool so much? And they maby think that black is always black, and also that the reflection can't be other than white? I changed it with 'Levels' in PS.
Load More Replies...OMG I SAW IT AS WHITE AND GOLD AND IT SLOWLY FADED TO BLUE AND BLACK
I had light blue and gold. Then I looked away, pulled the curtains closed and turned the lights on and it is black and blue. I've read that if you spent the majority of your time under artificial light you see black and blue.
"Crazy Frog"
🎶 Ring ding ding daa baa Ring ding ding daa baa Baa aramba baa bom baa barooumba Baa aramba baa bom baa barooumba Wh-wha-what's going on-on? Wh-wha-what's going on-on? Ding, ding Ding, ding This is the Crazy Frog This is the Crazy Frog Ding, ding Ding, ding Bem, bem! Bem, bem! Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding baa baa Ring ding ding ding baa baa Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem Ring ding ding ding bem bem bem Ring ding ding ding ding ding Ring ding ding ding ding ding This is the Crazy Frog This is the Crazy Frog Breakdown! Breakdown! Ding, ding Ding, ding Br-br-break it, br-break it Br-br-break it, br-break it Dum dum dumda dum dum dum Dum dum dumda dum dum dum Dum dum dumda dum dum dum Dum dum dum dum dum🎶
God that's awful. I'm glad I don't remember this one.
Load More Replies...It was huge around the time my hb and I dated. I gonna annoy him with it again!
I have an old video of my son, daughter and niece dancing to this song it was freaking hilarious
"Beyblades"
I remember when boys at my school used to brag about their beyblades and how many they owned. I only played with them once but it was super fun
Lots of kids still play with these. I even have one student who brings his Beyblade arena to school.
"Pogs Or Crazy Bones"
"Were around so much in the 90s, early 2000s, but just disappeared into the nothingness"
Because you actually own them, as opposed to an indexed address indicating a location and a questionable copyright without much legal backing. That's ignoring the ones that may have been created by AI which would mean they have no copyright in the US. NFTs are great scamming gullible cryptobros.
Load More Replies...I still have Pogs around somewhere unless I gave them to my nieces and nephews.
"Trapper Keepers"
"The Harlem Shake"
I think this was one of the most notable ones...it was everywhere.
Before my son passed away, when he was in Middle School, he was the star in two of the teachers videos when they made this
"W.W.J.D. Bracelets"
"When I was a teen in the late mid-to-late 90s, the W.W.J.D. bracelets were everywhere. And I would see W.W.J.D. merch all over the place, even W.W.J.D. board games. People don't remember how huge maxim magazine was back in the day. Like from 1999 to 2002 it was universally loved by young men."
i cannot get past what the connection between wwjd bracelets and Maxim magazine might be, it is killing me
No idea, don't even know what Maxim magazine is/was.
Load More Replies...My friend and I had WWJD, FROG (Fully rely on God) and PUSH (pray until something happens).
"Ty Beanie Babies"
The originals in pristine condition are worth a c**p ton of money
Very much still a thing, I have a 7 year old who is ready to prove you wrong 😂
"Slime"
Yep. A fair amount of the things on list are. Like fidget spinners. My son and nephew are still crazy about them. We gave them as stocking suffers at Christmas. Total hit still.
Load More Replies...Slime is huge still. My 15, 11, and 8 year old are obsessed with slime YouTube accounts. These accounts pull in huge numbers. Peachybbs is the fave :)
"Finger Skate"
Shuddup. They were cool! Still are!
Load More Replies..."Bottle Flipping"
"That One Weird Summer Of 2016 Where Clowns Randomly Appeared Out Of Nowhere And Creeped Us All Out"
That was the year my friends tried to prank everyone at a party by dressing up as killer clowns
Same year someone tied red balloons to the drains..
Load More Replies...I would have loved to have seen that I would have given every freaking clown a hug. I love clowns, Pennywise 💜❤️
"Dubstep"
"2011-2014 was a wild time."
My husband knows if I'm playing my dubstep to leave me alone because I am seriously seriously pissed off
“You're so dark! You sure you're not from the DC universe? I love dubstep!“(This is true. The quote is from DP2. But I do actually love dubstep)
"Bakugan"
Why am I hearing “Kickback”? This is Bakugan not Chainsaw man lol
"Pen Pineapple Apple Pen"
Well, neither did I until I JUST looked it up. 👎I didn't get very far into the song.
Load More Replies..."Club Penguin"
Except this is a screenshot of one of the fan made Club Penguin revival servers instead of the original website so it's not exactly a "forgotten trend" if people remember it enough to go through with the effort of making a revival server
"Chat Roulette Or Omegle"
Omegle is taken down so its sol for keeping a good long lasting legacy
Load More Replies...Why in God's name would anyone go out of their way to talk to a random stranger?
I hate talking to people I know, let alone strangers 😂
Load More Replies..."Hypercolor Clothing"
"I was a huge nerd in elementary school, and I thought I was gonna be super cool when my mom bought me an off-brand Hypercolor shirt. I wore it to school, and one of the kids who bullied me realized that it would change colors if he spit on it. Then he showed lots of other people. It was the worst day of my elementary school life."
We were poor growing up. Never got the cool, hip clothes. (that's what makes a new waver become a new waver) but I would have loved one of these shirts. And I think they'd make a great comeback today. Kids are dying for 90's garb like we did for 70's
"Epic Fail"
"Riding Your Skateboard While Drinking Cranberry Juice"
"With 'Dreams' by Fleetwood Mac in the background."
"The "Clear" Craze"
"We saw lots of clear drinks and products in the late '80s and into the '90s, including Crystal Pepsi, Tab Clear, and, of course, Zima."
all the other ones were gross and died of natural causes
Load More Replies...Crystal Pepsi is a season thing now. And most Zevia drinks are clear.
Load More Replies..."The Mannequin Challenge"
It was basically where everyone in a place would freeze and someone would take video of everyone. One of those social media fads pre-tiktok.
Load More Replies..."Flash Mobs"
"I miss the awkwardness of school teachers and office managers to entice others to join."
I was going to say exactly the same. Especially the one with people arriving at Heathrow.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB3NPNM4xgo
Load More Replies..."Rainbow Foods"
"Like the rainbow grilled cheese, etc."
It's a really dry cake, it's sold like this at Walmart
Load More Replies...That cake slice is from Walmart they sell it in the bakery cake case and it is awesome!
"The TV Series 'Lost.'"
A friend recommended Lost but said the ending sucked. I watched every episode but the last, to this day I am not disappointed.
It started as good and interesting series, and then became nonsencial, boring and repetitive
man, this show is so good. what are your theories as to how it ended?
"Like A Boss"
"Neopets"
My Lupe, Amaranth, is 22 years old. MY NEOPETS ACCOUNT IS 22 YEARS OLD. bruh I feel so old now XD
*sigh* I wish they hadn't changed. I had won the BC multiple times, got Overall a few, had so much fun. But people started tracing my art and the staff were the only people that didn't see how obvious it was. I left.
I randomly jump on the server to put my pets in the lodge for 30 days and maybe try the Snowager :)
"A Weird Obsession With Mustaches"
Mustaches are sexy, even with older men just look at Sam Elliott, 78, and still rocking it
"Cup Stacking"
I'm a teacher and one of the other teachers has several sets of these in his classroom. They use them for transitions I think.
"Second Life"
"The virtual reality 'game,' or whatever it was. There was a time when every self-respecting global company just had to have a place there. When people paid real money for its virtual real estate."
"The Power Balance Bracelets"
"Yik Yak"
"Yik Yak was the s***. Everyone knew what was going on on campus within seconds. People within the same classes used it to shit-talk professors and cheat on tests. It’s too bad that people had to ruin it with death threats and such, which kind of forced Yik Yak to make it nonanonymous and killed the appeal it had in the first place. For me as a commuting student at the time, it was key to keeping up with the happenings and drama around campus."
If I'm not mistaken wasn't yak the first chat room before everything else?
"Drawing The Cool S"
"Shuffling Dance"
"Silly Bands"
Why - why is the image legitimate bracelets? Silly Bandz were the rubber bands in different shapes, lol
"A Weird Obsession With Bacon"
"I Love B***ies!" Bands"
How about bracelets for anything and everything? It went from Livestrong to sports teams to every fundraiser.
"Lisztomania"
Lisztomania was marked by extreme fan frenzy, similar to the adoration of contemporary celebrity musicians, in a time when such musical fervor was uncommon.
It's from the Ken Russell movie of the same name. Roger Daltrey was perfectly dreadful as the composer, Franz Liszt.
"Kony 2012"
This one made me so angry. All of a sudden everyone cared even though Joseph Kony had been brutalizing children since the 80’s/90’s. But all of a sudden it became “cool” to speak out against him all because a couple of YT boys said so. He still hasn’t been found so the efforts of all the keyboard warriors was worthless.
I actually put a reminder in my calendar for when people would forget. I was pretty much dead on for when he wouldn't be mentioned at all anymore. Utilizing memes and fads can do some good. The ice bucket challenge did actually raise $115 million for ALS research. But you can't just write a check to stop a horrific human like Kony. That takes concerted and long term pressure on those with the capability to do so.
Load More Replies..."Webkinz"
Anyone remember money? It’s what we had to spend on silly stuff like this instead of food and shelter
How are these "viral" trends? Most of these existed before social media existed. Some existed before the internet existed.
I have been online since about 1978 and have only heard of a few of these, mostly predating any computer connections. Thus my downvote.
'95 for me and I also have heard of only a few of these. I did have yo yos wayyy back then and that's about it.
Load More Replies...Anyone remember money? It’s what we had to spend on silly stuff like this instead of food and shelter
How are these "viral" trends? Most of these existed before social media existed. Some existed before the internet existed.
I have been online since about 1978 and have only heard of a few of these, mostly predating any computer connections. Thus my downvote.
'95 for me and I also have heard of only a few of these. I did have yo yos wayyy back then and that's about it.
Load More Replies...
