The algorithm is in, your personality is out. If you were to ask humanity 20 years ago what technology would do for us today, their answer would most likely be flying cars. Instead, today we scroll through the endless void of multimedia and have turned into one persona. Through different trends, marketing tactics, and conformity, social media has placed us into boxes we cannot get out of. Whether it’s polka dots, capris, the color teal, or Rhode eye patches, nobody displays their true self anymore out of fear of showing cultural defiance, which in turn is destroying digital media and individuality.
Trends have two subcategories: microtrends and macrotrends. Microtrends are the more popular of the two since they become widespread more frequently and died own quickly. Microtrends are viral, short-lived products or concepts that go viral on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Unlike microtrends, macrotrends aren’t as common since they last longer and are often are due to a change in economy, technology, and social movements. This ultimately normalizes them to us, meaning we don’t deem them as a trend. However, microtrends are the real issue when it comes to individuality. It feels as if there is a new trend to keep up with every week. Going shopping feels like browsing the same store repeatedly, each wall turning into a maze of polka dots and stripes.
Overconsumption of products leads to mass production from various brands, which pressures the public to buy them because they’re one of the only items available at the moment and completely leaves out those who may not have that style. This leaves consumers with only two options: conform or deviate. And many tend to conform due to the oversaturation of influence via various marketing tactics.
Scrolling on YouTube used to be fun: watching people show off their interests they spent years indulging, seeking out hauls of fashion that were curated to their taste, and hearing genuine recommendations from your favorite creators. Now if you were to take a visit onto the platform, there’s a strong lack of diversity in videos with hidden product placement in each one. DIML (AKA Day in My Life) videos are highly popular, which gives creators the opportunity to demonstrate trending activities or items. They also collaborate with brands and share their product with their audience in exchange for money and brand trust to continue collaborations. The success with this tactic has encouraged other creators to follow this routine, which creates a cycle of preset internet personalities and encourages the audience to reenact what they see on the screen.
However, if you’re not like the other personalities on the internet, your content is at risk of becoming “shadow-banned”, a common term that is used to describe the reducing of a creator’s content without alerting them. This level of influencing is almost similar to peer pressure, something we were all warned of as children and probably should be weary of as adults.
Seeing others in daily life partake in microtrends, small marketing collaborations, influencer suggestions, and borrowed personal expression put those who don’t participate in these consumer frenzies at risk of conformity. This could be because of FOMO (the fear of missing out), pressure from friends who participate in these trends, or a lack of diversity in products. If this continues, we’ll see less unique personalities, on and off the screen— putting our personal expression at risk because of capitalism and ultimately destroying the potential of modern media.
