32 New Trends That Are Doing A Lot Of Damage But Many People Don’t Realize It
We’re social beings, so it only makes sense that many of us want to be respected, accepted, and adored. We crave being part of the group, so we copy certain behaviors to fit in and appear hip and cool. However, blindly following trends can do a lot of harm, especially when they change so quickly these days.
Inspired by u/Tater-Tot-Casserole, the r/AskReddit online community opened up about what they personally think are the most damaging new trends that we see these days. They hoped to raise some awareness among other internet users and urge them to be more careful. Scroll down to read their opinions, and remember to upvote the ones you agree with, Pandas.
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Posting children and all their personal, emotional and vulnerable moments. People are LITERALLY pimping children for karma and followers. Crying children. Dying children. Naughty children. Confused children. Humiliated children. .
I've just never understood parents who post pictures of their children when they're upset or doing something that they might later find embarrassing. It was bad enough for me looking at some of my old photos with family, I'd be mortified if they'd have been posted online. The fairest thing to do is to only share photos privately with family and to let kids share photos themselves when they're old enough to have a social media account.
I think de-stigmatizing mental health is great. I think all the self diagnoses and hyper acceptance where it's used as justification for s****y, lazy, or entitled behavior is not. I'm sorry to people who are truly struggling, but you still need to take responsibility for your mental health and put effort into trying to grow and heal.
It's especially annoying that so many people that actually don't have mental issues make videos to get likes and pity about being "neurodivergent", even though they just like to complain. Neurodivergent is an umbrella term and about as precise as saying "I have an allergy". What kind, against almonds, pollen or shellfish? Same goes with mental illnesses, it's a long way between ADHD and PTSD, both of which go under this umbrella. I've come to the point that I don't believe it anymore when someone says neurodivergent and can't elaborate on what they actually have.
The more popular the trend, the greater the impulse to follow suit. You don’t want to stand out from your friends, family, and coworkers, do you now?! Many of us feel the pressure to fit in, even if we’re aware that we’re dealing with a new trend.
Maybe you feel the hype on the internet and feel the itch to watch a new TV show or play a specific video game. Or you feel like you have to make a certain type of content because the format is popular right now.
Perhaps all of your coworkers have been sporting a specific hairstyle or a particular type of jacket that’s all the rage in town, and now, you feel like you should follow suit. Or maybe there’s a fresh diet that everyone’s been proclaiming is a godsend (and is totally better than the last half-a-dozen trendy diets they tried in the last year alone). Trends are inescapable. But it comes down to us to decide how to react to them.
IPads for toddlers. Let’s destroy our kid’s dopamine receptors before they can even talk properly. Sounds great.
The internet is also not particularly concerned with raising a child, or doing it right. Kids raised by phones tend to be extremely entitled because algorithms specifically try to put all of us into the bubble that agrees the most with us, so we never hear anyone saying we are wrong.
Subscription models for every service. gone are the days of curated collections, now you own nothing.
If you’re going to follow every single trend, you’re going to end up utterly exhausted. Whether we’re talking about fashion, content, or entertainment, trends are flashing by us quicker than ever. We live in a heavily interconnected world. 5.44 billion people around the world use the internet, of which 5.07 billion are social media users, according to Statista. With so many users and different ideas, opinions, and online activity, which get seen and iterated on by others, trends pop up and get replaced incredibly quickly.
So, unless you aim to be at the cutting edge of trends all the time (e.g., you’re a famous content creator or reviewer and your livelihood depends on this), it’s better to aim for long(er)-lasting trends or to ignore most of the ‘noise’ and do what feels right to you.
Normalizing plastic surgery, fillers and botox for teens.
Instagram tourism. We’re trashing beautiful places because we gotta have THAT photo!
The "Alpha male" and red pill ideology popular in groups of men and teenagers.
Of course, before you commit to any trend, make sure to do your research. Take your time, and don’t rush into anything! Especially if you plan on testing out some hyped-up diet or workout. A diet that might work for one person might have adverse effects for someone else with different genes and lifestyle. Similarly, a random workout isn’t going to give you a six-pack in ten days, no matter what you’re promised. Remember your own workout goals and go from there. Be very careful where your health is concerned.
Don’t drastically change your life just because you’re scared you won’t be as cool as your friends. If you want to be trendy, be trendy, but do that from a position of confidence, not fear. And, let’s be honest, you should consider the people in your social circle who follow these trends: do they commit to one of them or do they bounce to whatever’s the most popular?
Using ‘therapy speak’ to justify toxic behavior. It’s making it difficult for people with actual issues being taken seriously when someone who has likely never seen a therapist uses medical terminology to explain why they’re allowed to be a******s in public.
House rentals (corporations, AirBnB) taken too far — when a community ends up with scant actual residents….
Plastic lawns: bio diversity loss, micro plastic fibres, turning reality into Minecraft.
We have fake grass, but that’s because we live in the desert. In the front, everything is rocks and desert vegetation, our “side yard” is fake grass so our son could play. We had real grass in both places when we bought the house with irrigation set up, but we took that all out. I’m thinking that’s better to not waste water. I’m also thinking I don’t understand what exactly micro fibers are. 🤔
Previously, Bored Panda got in touch with historian Dr. Jane Nicholas from St. Jerome’s University at the University of Waterloo, who shared her thoughts on social media and the desire to look beautiful. According to her, seeking ‘perfection’ has long been sold as something attainable; it’s nothing new. There’s a semi-hidden suggestion that we can look ‘perfect’ if we try harder or spend more money.
“Many cosmetics, for example, promise the ability to achieve a certain look with their use. Social media is driven by different, more individual forces than traditional media, but it is caught up in many of the same patterns, specifically selling goods,” she told us during an earlier interview.
Helicopter parenting. Kids grow up unable to problem solve, self-soothe, make decisions, meet new people, communicate with bosses or professors, just basic stuff. I know parents who won't let their kids learn to drive because they think 16 is too young. But at 18 they're going to punt these kids off to college who have been told their whole lives that every stranger wants to kidnap, rape, or murder them, that walking after dark is life-threatening, and now they're going to room with a stranger, on a campus full of strangers, and walk to and from class, sometimes after dark. There's a reason so many young adults have anxiety disorders. I know people in their 20s who have panic attacks when faced with calling to make a doctor appointment.
One of my friends has a mom like this. She’s eighteen, but her mom won’t let her drive, barely let her hang out with friends without supervision, still picks out her clothing, still makes her cut and style her hair a certain way. Hell, her mom even tries to shave her still (she’s trans). I’m so worried for her when she leaves that hellhole because she has almost no life skills.
One trend that's gaining momentum and potentially causing harm is "doomscrolling." This is to the habit of endlessly scrolling through negative news or social media feeds, often leading to feelings of anxiety, depression, and helplessness.
According to the historian, the trends that we see these days may actually be continuations of previous trends or reactions to them. So, if you know your history, you might just see certain trends make comebacks under a slightly different name and in different packaging.
What new trends do you personally think are the most damaging, dear Pandas? On the flip side, do you think that there are any trends that have been genuinely good for society? What trends do you personally follow, whether consciously or unconsciously? If you have a moment, share your thoughts in the comments.
Posting everything on social media.
I used to post a lot on stories on Instagram, Whatsapp, at some point I started to think that no one actually cares what I post and it's pointless for me, so I stopped. I was checking who saw those posts, got annoyed when someone I didn't like watched my stories. Now I don't post on social media anymore and I'm happier.
Ahhh...I remember that little dopamine hit when someone interacted with something id posted on FB or insta. But it did more harm than good in the long run, I quit in the early days of the pandemic and it's been so much better for my mental health.
Kids rarely spending significant time outdoors. On a minor note they're more likely to become nearsighted. On a significant note, they're less likely to be emotionally stable for times of adversity as an adult.
Short videos ruining attention spans .
I absolutely HATE watching something and in the background is some subway surfers or Minecraft parcours going on. Stop dividing my attention, I don't give a f- about this s**t, I just want to hear the information said.
Parasocial relationships with celebrities.
Swifties, Beyhive, Barbz etc.
Nothing new here. "Teenyboppers" first appeared in the 1960s and 70s, with many young girls of that generation defining themselves by whether they liked Donny Osmond, David Cassidy or the Bay City Rollers (and others, of course, who came and went over time). Only one was allowed to be liked by any one girl at any one time.
“Hauls” of just about anything. It’s incredibly wasteful and I imagine most influencers who do so can’t use all of that product before they’re pressured to make more content. Plus it encourages normal people to do the same, leading to lots of plastic waste and demand for cheap, unethical labor.
I realise that people buy from websites, like the one that uses a lot of bold orange and starts with the letter T, but all this cheap, marketed to buy more due to low prices is simply consumerism to the extreme. Buy somthing, buy something, buy anything! All. The. Time. And influencers? Seriously, don't get me started on what I think of influencers....
Celebrity tequila. More specifically the process of hydrolysis that use young agave plants instead of mature agave plants, creating a neutral alcohol that is then flavored with additives. This brings the price of agave up and customers are given an artificial tequila rather than traditionally made tequila that uses agave plants matured for 7 years.
In the UK 'artisanal' and speciality gins have been big and still growing for the last 20 years or so. They go on and on about them, but then when they drink them they _always_ mix them with a disgusting fizzy bitter-sweet concoction known as Tonic Water (OK, probably about 99.5% of the time - I actually like gin without it and I can't be the only one). What the hell is the point of adding all those flavours and aromatics to the gin if you're just going to overpower them before you drink the stuff?
Airpods in constantly. I have a feeling in 20 years we're going to see a lot of hearing damage in people too young to have it.
Steroid use is becoming increasingly popular among teenage boys and young men. Social media is feeding them metric tons of fitfluencers that lie about their steroid use, feeding into the "why can't I be like them" pipeline that ends up with them hopping on. Hell, a few months into weightlifting myself and I was literally getting ads for steroids right on Reddit. Some years from now, I guarantee we'll start seeing these boys grow with serious health issues from using steroids at a very vulnerable age.
ChatGPT, I feel like I'm unable to produce a long coherent piece of text anymore and I spot this chatgpt kinda language on linkedin, resumes, product descriptions, everywhere.
What disturbed me most was seeing a science proposal written by ChatGPT. The only time I've ever seen a document that was 300% total garbage. The proposal had three independent and incompatible parts, each one of which was 100% garbage. It reminded me of a saying I had 30 years ago. "Artificial Intelligence is for people who have no natural intelligence".
The rise of sports gambling. A lot of people are going to lose a lot of money and in A few years it won’t be pretty when we know someone who has had their life destroyed by another addiction in their pocket.
Gambling in general. Every other ad everywhere is a gambling ad of some kind. 🤔
The disappearance of child friendly spaces online, *especially* for girls. Remember when toys like barbie and poly pocket had websites filled with games where you could dress up characters or do makeovers? Design a dream bedroom? They literally don't exist anymore. I've noticed a growing issue with young girls having no safe spaces online anymore where they can just be kids, leading to them trying to fit in by copying older teen/adult activities like *makeup tutorials* and get-ready-with-me videos, growing up far too quick. Literally saw a kid who was like 12 apply foundation while talking about s**t like some beauty influencer.
I think a big part in that was that the support for Flash applications were cancelled a few years ago
Internet addiction, just look at the paste 3 decades and noticed some of those people spent over 20 years in front of a screen going on the internet most of the day.
Wegozy and Ozempic. Yes they help weight loss but you have to continue to use them for life or you just gain the weight back.
One of the effects of ozempic is to regulate insulin which is why it is prescribed for non-insulin dependent diabetics i.e. those with type 2 diabetes. It also slows down emptying of the stomach making you feel less hungry for longer, hence the impact on weight management which is why it is being mis-used as a miracle weight loss d**g, That is why there is a world-wide shortage of the d**g and why DM2 patients cannot find a reliable supply.
One of the biggest issues today I see is the "do your own research" movement. You can validate any opinion or belief with a Google search if you don't know how research actually is supposed to work, and sadly most people don't know how research is supposed to work. Credible sources, citations, tracebacks, alternate-theory research, all things that most people don't even know they need to look for, let alone how to do them correctly. It's led to an awful lot of horrible bigotry being "justified" to those who solely seek justification for their bigotry and nothing else.
Good point! For many out there, research = reading. As you point out, research requires way more than just reading. It involves inquiring, studying, analysing, interpreting and scrutinizing data in accordance to a methodology.
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Not new, but I see a lot of casual, recreational hard d**g use. All fine and good (I guess) while things are good and you're partying. But when life turns black, for any reason, it becomes that much easier for problems to arise
One of the biggest issues today I see is the "do your own research" movement. You can validate any opinion or belief with a Google search if you don't know how research actually is supposed to work, and sadly most people don't know how research is supposed to work. Credible sources, citations, tracebacks, alternate-theory research, all things that most people don't even know they need to look for, let alone how to do them correctly. It's led to an awful lot of horrible bigotry being "justified" to those who solely seek justification for their bigotry and nothing else.
Good point! For many out there, research = reading. As you point out, research requires way more than just reading. It involves inquiring, studying, analysing, interpreting and scrutinizing data in accordance to a methodology.
Load More Replies... Not new, but I see a lot of casual, recreational hard d**g use. All fine and good (I guess) while things are good and you're partying. But when life turns black, for any reason, it becomes that much easier for problems to arise
