As autumn quickly approaches, the days get shorter, the air chiller, and most importantly, the annoying trends that have been bothering us all summer disappear. Summer 2016 was fun, but I’m ready for the irritating fads that came with it, to die.
1. Taking photos with pineapples on your head. Why is this a thing? I love pineapples just as much as the next person, but I don’t understand why everyone and their mother has to post photos on Instagram with these delicious fruits. The typical pineapple photo features a girl in a bikini, sometimes at the beach, holding a pineapple on her head and smiling like it’s the most fun she’s had all year. I know people that have bought pineapples solely for the purpose of taking a photo, and then proceeded to throw them away. Seems like a waste of yummy fruit to me. Similar to swan floats and donut biting photos, these cliché and overused pictures need to see their death this fall. Of course, they will naturally be replaced by pumpkin holding photos, which, as a classic, you can’t help but love.
2. Not wearing shoes when it’s raining. I’m not sure if this is just a UCF thing, but I have witnessed many hipsters walking around with no shoes on when Florida decides to do its daily afternoon downpour. Maybe they don’t want to get their shoes wet, or maybe they like the feeling of thousands of germs covering the soles of their feet? Either way, this needs to stop. Hopefully as the weather gets somewhat cooler and the incessant rain decreases, people will no longer walk around without shoes on.
3. Ridiculously long Snapchat stories featuring you and your friends singing in the car. I get it, we all love to jam out in the car with our besties to our favorite songs. However, I don’t care to see 200 second-long Snapchat stories of you and your friends lip-syncing or actually singing (worse) to the Top 40 hits. Once and a while this is fine, as it’s a great moment to embarrass your friends. When it becomes a habit and you post five separate videos of the same thing to your story, you have a problem.
4. Wearing band shirts when you have never listened to the band. I blame Forever 21 for this one. Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana cut off shirts are plastered around their store. Unfortunately probably 90 percent of the people wearing these overpriced band tees have only heard one song. I know ‘90s grunge is in, but make sure you can at least reference more than one song by the band plastered on your shirt.
5. Overalls. Just the word alone sends me back to 1999. Some fashion trends shouldn’t make a comeback. Chokers? Sure. Combat boots? Hell yes. But overalls need to remain in the past. They don’t look flattering on anybody – not even the Queen of England, Emma Watson. They somehow manage to make everyone, regardless of size, look like a shapeless potato sack with legs.
6. Harambe memes. I’m totally guilty of loving the hilarious Harambe memes and jokes that have flooded the Internet the past couple months. Memes all have a lifespan, however, and Harambe’s is coming to an end soon. What was once funny has become overused and ridiculous. Fraternities have become Harambe worshippers, and use Harambe on their shirts, have Harambe stickers on their car, and even chant odes to Harambe at tailgates. (I witnessed these all firsthand.) Let the poor guy rest.
7. The dog face Snapchat filter. I loved the dog face filter when it was first introduced on Snapchat. It was funny and cute, but after months of seeing the same filter over and over again, I’m done. I have even seen people post photos with the filter onto their Instagram and Facebook accounts. It’s fine to send to your friends, but no one cares about seeing what your face looks like with dog ears and a tongue every day. I’d much rather see an actual dog.
8. Sharing too many videos on Facebook. For example, I love Tastemade videos, but if you share more than one Facebook video every few days, please don’t. I use Facebook to keep up with my friends and family and see the occasional cute dog or recipe video. Recently my Facebook feed has become nothing but DIYs and recipes for kale casserole. I would go on Pinterest if I was really inclined to learn how to cook anything (I’m not).
9. Jeans that are a bit too destroyed. Jeans with a few rips and holes are cute, casual and fun. When your jeans start to look like you put them through a wood chipper, that’s another story. Jeans that are almost completely open in the front are bizarre and don’t look good. It looks like you couldn’t decide between shorts or jeans so you just made a combination of the two. Hopefully as it gets cooler, people will trade out their half jeans for actual jeans.
10. Posting pictures of your delicious, healthy food. I am somewhat guilty of this, because I love to brag when I get great food. If you post daily photos of your quinoa salads and juice blends, I will unfollow you. It makes me hungry, jealous and feel bad about the Taco Bell I had for lunch. Summer is the opportune time to post these because you’re traveling or trying new things, but don’t send me that FOMO. Get prepared, though, because these posts have a fall equivalent of photos of lattes and pumpkin-baked goods.