Trendsetter: Who or what is deciding what is popular today?

We have entered a digital age and information is shared faster than any carrier pigeon or court messenger could have imagined. My friends are simply the press of a button away and so is social media with all of its posts, videos, ads and influencers. Its curated algorithm is created for the individual, designed to entice and lure them away from your life to a digital world encapsulated in a small rectangle. But why do they want to reel you in? What is the goal of a personally curated feed? 

Your attention. 

Who has it? Do I have it? Do they have it?

The battle for attention began long before the rise of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Whether that be through ads skimmed while reading the newspaper, signs passed on the road home, a jingle heard on the radio or a television commercial heard faintly in the background. Advertising has always been a part of consumerism and it is always adapting. It is a more recent challenge for brands to stay relevant in the consumer’s mind with the sheer amount of media being fed to them. 

Attention spans are shrinking and the length of trends with them. Studies have proven that the average attention span when on a screen has dropped from an average of 150 seconds to 47 seconds from 2004 to 2023. This is reflected in the length of “videos” on social media being reduced from longer forms of content to short clips. The same pattern is reflected in social media trends. They appear and disappear out of frame in a matter of weeks almost as if the societal attention span for trends has shrunk.

The first social media trend I remember being influenced by was the “VSCO girl” trend in 2019. It was a trend targeted toward young teenagers and tweens with an emphasis on environmentally friendly practices. VSCO girls were identified through scrunchies, Hydro Flask water bottles, metal straws and shoes like Birkenstocks or Crocs. I purchased, or rather, I pestered my parents to purchase, these items. I wanted to be in on the trend but trends change. Water bottles fancied by the public shift like the hidden ball under shuffling red solo cups in a magician’s show that you just have to find. One second it is a Hydro Flask, the next it is a Stanley and then suddenly an Owala. 

What will it be next?

With feeds designed for the individual, trends can develop in isolated niches of the internet. Currently, squishies are a hot commodity amongst Generation Alpha. While working in retail over the summer, a question I repetitively received was “Do you have any squishies?” I answered it in person and over the phone. These phone conversations always involved one of three scenarios. The first was a tired parent calling to see if we had any squishies. The second was a child whose parents were forcing them to ask for themselves. And the third was a child calling, as a selected spokesperson, for a group of children. 

The squishy craze is not exclusively limited to Gen Alpha. It has infiltrated the attention of Generation Z as well. As I sit here and write this article, my butter squishy is within arms reach. 

Companies like 7 Brew, a drive-through coffee shop, utilize the appeal of trends like squishies as a hot commodity to generate business. On Sept. 7, participating 7 Brew locations distributed free squishies with orders. I sat in a line of cars for an hour and a half for three of my friends to receive a “brew-doh.” The entire time, we were questioning if there would still be squishies left, but the marketing strategy was effective. Lines of cars caused traffic jams in multiple states, like Ohio, Wisconsin and South Carolina, with customers swarming to 7 Brew locations. I witnessed a handful of almost-accidents because traffic lines often blocked entrances and exits to other businesses. By appealing to the squishy trend, 7 Brew guaranteed business on Labor Day. 

Squishies did not simply become popular overnight. It was a transition that occurred through participation. Trends appear and videos go viral through your interaction. We, as an audience, determine what we like, repost, comment and share on social media, but through these actions we are simply re-advertising the media we are exposed to to a larger audience. Our interaction and attention are affirming this cyclical process of short-lived trends. Like a bubble, if they get too big, or you blow too hard, they pop. It can be easy to blame society’s short attention span for trends on influencers because they have a larger audience to influence, but in the end, you have the deciding power. You are the trendsetter. 

• #7brew
• #shopping
• #socialmedia
• #squishies
• #trends