How Social Media Killed Trend Longevity

By Vanessa Lee and Alessandro Borgia

Trends have come and gone throughout the years but now it feels like they’re coming and going faster than ever. It feels like trends have been getting shorter and shorter because of social media. Viral trends don’t stay viral for very long. Now, it feels like all of social media is flooded with “micro-trends”. The shortened lifespan of trends and the rise of micro-trends have impacted those who use social media, especially Generation Z. 

To understand micro-trends, one needs to understand how trends normally work. A good place to see trends in action is in the fashion world. The fashion trend cycle is made up of five stages: introduction, rise, peak, decline and obsolescence.

Trends typically “came and went every 20 years.” (Ewens) As a new style of fashion is introduced, it is “only available in small quantities from a handful of different designers or fashion retailers and are often marketed at high prices.” (Diantari) These styles are introduced by fashion brands during marketing campaigns, fashion shows or worn by celebrities. Those styles start out as being exclusive to high end brands. Over time, the style will grow in popularity and demand during the rise stage. The rise stage is “also known as the ‘fashion acceptance’ stage”. (Diantari) A trend peaks when a majority of the population uses it. Brands will have mass produced the trend and sell it at a much lower price than the original. Following the peak is the decline and obsolescence of a trend. Eventually, the trend would become oversaturated and lose its relevance. Generally, this is how trends work.

Continuing with the example of fashion, social media has affected the way trends work in that industry. It is so common to see more and more fashion styles go viral every day. A viral moment by an influencer can spark a huge demand for a certain type of clothing item. With this rise in demand for these exclusive pieces of clothing, companies will do one of three things. They will either ignore what their customers want, up the price of their products without producing more pieces, or simply keep the price the same but produce more clothes in cheaper quality. 

          Once customers realize that the quality gradually gets worse they will begin to not purchase the products. This caused the “decline” in the trend and eventually no one will even remember what it once was. All it takes is one insanely popular celebrity to wear a piece of clothing that fans around the world love for a company to jump right on the opportunity to make some money. 100s of microtrends come up throughout the year and companies try to copy it in their own way which the majority of the time ends in the same way of being forgotten over time. Social media pushes what’s hot and cool in the world and at the same time hides and pushes away what dies. To social media companies it’s all about the views to them because that’s where the money is made.

One relatively recent micro trend that came and went was the coquette aesthetic and it follows this new micro trend life cycle. The coquette aesthetic is a style that “emphasizes a playful and flirtatious attitude that’s often characterized by dainty and delicate elements such as ruffles, bows, and pastel colors.” (Mayhew) The aesthetic was created in the mid 2010s but it wasn’t until 2023 and 2024 that the style went mainstream. Celebrities like Lana Del Ray have been credited for being the inspiration behind the aesthetic when it was first born. This marks the introduction phase of the trend— it started off as exclusive to celebrities. Shows like Bridgerton kicked the aesthetic into the mainstream and influencers began making coquette content. Celebrities continued to wear the style at red carpet events. Because of social media, their images got shared millions of times and reached millions of people who want to partake in the style too. Bridgerton, influencers and celebrities contributed to the rise of coquette fashion. Bows and ruffles were all the rage and companies caught on. Brands like Cider, H&M, Zara and Shein have all hopped on the coquette train to take advantage of the vitality of the style. These brands are known for quickly jumping on to a trend and putting out clothing pieces that aren’t the best quality, but they make it incredibly easy to join in on the hottest trend. This instant accessibility to the style led it to its peak around 2024 where everyone was talking about coquette. Coquette soon vanished in late 2024 and early 2025. A quick scroll on TikTok reveals that the majority of the videos about coquette were from the brief heyday the trend had in 2023 and early 2025. It disappeared as quickly as it came. 

On social media, everyone wants what everyone else has. For example, if an influencer has the latest and coolest water bottle, millions of people will swarm to purchase that same water bottle. This phenomenon has been seen in trends surrounding the Hydro Flask in 2019-2020 and the Stanley Cup in 2023-2024. The Stanley cup went viral after a woman posted a video of the remains of her burnt and charred car and showed that her water bottle miraculously survived with the ice still inside. This woman isn’t an influencer but her video sparked a viral moment that introduced the bottle to a wider audience. People began to buy the Stanley cup in swarms.There have been TikToks where people would fight each other in Targets just to get their hands on the newest color of Stanley cup. Niche communities on TikTok also contributed to the vitality of the Stanley cup. WaterTok is a community that dedicates their time to creating wild water concoctions using various drink powders and syrups. A lot of these videos feature a Stanley cup. Since a lot of these big creators within WaterTok have a Stanley cup, their audience is going to want one of their own too. It has been noticed that “admirers don’t just draw inspiration; they want to own exactly what they see.” (Dominus) It doesn’t help that social media is making it easier to buy into trends with easy clickable links on posts. Every other TikTok has a product linked to the video that promotes everything from fashion to toys to beauty products.  These videos with products linked to it only promote impulsive buying and instant gratification. Consumers buying trendy items en masse contributes to a faster rise phase in the trend cycle. This means that the peak phase will also come much faster than normal. Today, when one trend begins its decline, another just reached its peak. This happens because “TikTok— and the consumer market— demands novelty.” (Nguyen) People are so quick to drop a trend once a new one appears today. Trends rarely even last a year anymore, let alone twenty.

People aren’t putting enough thought into what they are consuming and it is creating a major problem not only with how trends work but also with how people behave now. This shortened lifespan of trends also contributes to major cultural shifts. Gen Z has access to knowledge about the entire world and its history via the internet. With all of this information available all at once, trends have been “divorced from much of its original context.” (Ewens) Today’s trends are meaningless. The early 2020s saw a surge of popularity in the alternative scene. To be alternative or alt means to challenge and question the things that are in the mainstream. Alt is a deep and rich subculture but because of social media it just became an aesthetic, something you throw on to look on trend. Fast fashion companies cranked out alternative looking clothes without knowing the history behind it. Everything is worn for the aesthetic rather than their deeper meaning.

Micro trends also have left some detrimental effects on the environment as well. Companies are always trying to push out new clothes to the market to capitalize on whatever is the hottest trend at the moment. With micro trends, brands and companies are trying to keep up. 

With shorter trends and micro trends being the new trend, it is very interesting to see what Gen Z has to say about it. Members of Gen Z are frankly tired of the onslaught of micro trends being constantly thrown at them. Some people are now deciding to focus more on their own style rather than following trends. For example, before buying an item of clothing, people are asking themselves to “think of three outfits you can wear it with.” (Venkatraman) Trends don’t define people. 

Trends have gone from defining eras of history to being something that lacks substance. Social media is largely the blame for this. With instant accessibility, trends rise and fall at an unprecedented rate. It’s time to slow down and take a more mindful approach to trends. It’s time to leave micro trends in the past and participate in things that truly speak to who you are. 

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