People Are Sharing Popular "Trends" That They Think Are More Harmful Than Society Realizes, And Several Made Me Think Twice
We live in an era where constantly-changing trends on both social media and in real life are everywhere. And to be honest, there are so many of them that it's hard to keep up with them all. And sometimes, we don't take the time to realize how toxic some of these trends really are.
NBC / Via giphy.com
Ghosting someone, instant gratification...I can go on and on.
So I turned to the BuzzFeed community to find out what trends are popular right now that might be considered toxic or harmful in the long run. Here are some of the most eye-opening responses.
1."Curvy bodies that only have curves in the right places."
"Most of us have curves around our belly which gets shamed. Curvy = curves everywhere! Stop with the 'big butt, big boobs, tiny waist' ideal."
2."Gender reveals… why are we still doing these?"
—Anonymous
3."Calling things other people do 'cringe.' Just let people enjoy things! It’s called diversity. Not everyone likes the same things."
4."The popularity of the true-crime genre will likely be seen as morbid and disturbing. Why are we so fascinated by stories about other humans suffering — and by the criminals causing them to suffer?"
"Why do we immortalize the worst kinds of criminals by writing so many books about their actions? Instead of consuming so many books and podcasts about people hurting each other, wouldn’t it be healthier to read and listen to true stories of people who helped each other?"
—Anonymous
5."I'm so tired of genuine issues becoming the latest trend. From anxiety, to racism, to sexual abuse...suddenly it's "trendy" to have an issue. It trivializes those who are genuinely suffering."
6."Calling everything toxic. Seriously, it’s annoying, and an overstatement in some cases. I’m all for calling out problematic behavior, but calling everything toxic dilutes the message."
"Save it for the actual toxic behaviors and use some different descriptors to more appropriately describe why other habits should be reconsidered."
—Anonymous
7."All of the non-invasive plastic surgery going on."
8."Extremely obscene lyrics that hypersexualize any group."
—Anonymous
9."Allowing children to use social media and targeting most social media trends towards them. We all remember being dramatic as teens. And having to see that amplified on social media is only going to make them feel worse. I really worry that this will prevent them from learning how to regulate their emotions in a healthy way."
—Anonymous
10."Younger people making fun of older people and vice versa. Just let people live."
11."The idea that we should support women no matter what they do and no matter if their choices feed into and reinforce oppressive structure."
"The goal of feminism is liberation and equality for all (including men and certainly including other marginalized communities), not the idea that individual women can do no wrong."
—Anonymous
12."Commercialized self-care. All the things people can buy or do for themselves in the name of 'self-care' that are really just a distraction from the unglamorous and often uncomfortable work of real self-care."
"Often, these things just cause us to retreat further into individual isolation, when we should be building supportive communities and both giving and accepting help from others."
—Anonymous
13."While I recognize the reasons for the body positivity movement — like dismantling harmful beauty standards — I hope that it'll soon be replaced by a body neutrality movement."
"Body positivity, constantly calling everyone beautiful and gorgeous just reinforces the fact that people are judging your appearance and that looking good is such a valuable thing in our society.
We all have off-days where we aren't up to putting the usual effort into our appearance and it'd be nice to just live our lives without others broadcasting their opinions on how we look at all times. What we're doing with our bodies should be commented upon more than just having them."
—zkye
14."Plastic surgery and caking on makeup."
—Anonymous
15."Filters! I still cannot believe how much they alter your face and the vast majority of beauty and aesthetic filters focus on narrowing and lightening your features."
"It's very scary and sends such an awful message. There's a big difference between making yourself look like a dog and completely changing the shape of your features."
16."Influencer culture that promotes unhealthy beauty standards and motivates people, especially young females, to share pictures in order to potentially become an 'influencer.'"
"In order to get more likes, young people are often taking extremely racy pictures or pics with messages (about things like drugs) that they'll likely regret later on."
—Anonymous
17."Hustle culture. It's a huge reason for mental and physical health issues. I worked three jobs at a time for a while and was praised for essentially digging my own grave. I honestly put in roughly 55 to 75 hours per week and felt like death."
"Due to multiple reasons (including health issues and quarantine preventing some of my work), I've realized that making $500 less is totally okay. I'd much rather have my health. It's concerning that most people in America think it's lazy that I'm no longer putting in 250% of my being into work. Even if you love your job, it's a job, not your life. We really need a cultural shift in the way of Europe."
—Anonymous
18."Eating 'clean.' Food is not inherently dirty or clean, unless we are talking about veggies that just came out of the ground. A healthy relationship with food is all about balance and demonizing certain foods is not the answer."
19."Gasoline use and animal products. The planet will be on fire half of the year by 2050. We should be trying to prevent it by cutting emissions dramatically now."
—Anonymous
20."Cancel culture."
—hof
21."Sexual objectification of celebrities. People on the Internet having discussions about the attractiveness of total strangers, and joking about being 'in love with' someone they have never met is just creepy. Yet because the people being discussed happen to be famous, it’s seen as okay."
—Anonymous
22."One of the trends I’ve seen is the 'I understood the assignment' song applied to having children. Like, fantastic for you if your child is your exact double or you have six boys, but that didn’t really happen because you willed it to happen."
"For people who have difficulty getting pregnant, it’s basically like telling them they just aren’t working hard enough. I know it’s just supposed to be a joke, but taken to its logical conclusion, it’s just kind of mean to people who are already struggling."
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23."Calling people Karen just because they have a difference of opinion."
24."Pronouns in bios. Pronouns in introductions. Pronouns on buttons. Pronouns, pronouns, pronouns."
"Don’t get me wrong, I think people should be called what they want to be called and you’re a massive dick if you ignore someone’s preference in that way. But for me personally, labeling myself as a 'she/her' to people who know nothing else about me feels both narcissistic (what do I care how you refer to me when I’m not there?) and uncomfortable, in that I don’t particularly want my colleagues to see me as a woman before they see me as a person. It’s also tricky for people who aren’t cis but aren’t ready to come out."
25."Everyone in a group on their phones instead of interacting with each other. Restaurants, parties, picnics, I've even seen it on a tour bus."
—Anonymous
26."Always having to turn things you do in your free time into a 'side hustle.' People are running themselves ragged trying to work multiple jobs at once, as opposed taking time to themselves to genuinely enjoy things."
"Of course I understand the economic necessity of this for a lot of people, but it does seem like the sort of thing that any reasonable society would look back on with horror."
—Anonymous
27."Snapchat."
"Its whole appeal is that the pictures and videos you post disappear after 24 hours, which means that a lot of shady stuff happens without being monitored. Imagine what creepy teenage boys could send without ever getting caught."
28."Vaping. So many kids I know think it's cool, but once the long term health risks come out, I'd imagine it'll go the same way as smoking."
—Anonymous
29."Building our personal 'brand.' People are so incredibly complex, but often you see people people, especially on social media, try and whittle themselves down to a singular and palatable identity."
"You don't have to have a single clothing or creative style, you don't have to drop hobbies because they're not marketable or you're not that good at them. You don't have to worry so much about being cringe. Just enjoy exploring all the facets of your identity and grow whatever direction you please."
—Anonymous
