Where to begin with this one? A trend which involves lying flat, face down, in random places, or on random objects. How this became a trend is beyond me, though I must admit to being quite amused by it. The lengths people go to with trying to surpass each other and get the most impressive ‘plank’ is quite incredible, and has resulted in some very interesting planks…
The craze started in Australia, as most of the craziest trends seem to, and has gone international with millions of people contributing to this latest craze. It’s such a simple concept, anyone can do it at anytime, as Facebook has proven. Tell us the best place you’ve ever planked in the comments section below!
No doubt you’ll have seen plenty of your female, maybe even your male Facebook friends showing you their natural beauty, or lack of it, all in the name of charity. #NoMakeUpSelfie is exactly what it says on the tin. A selfie taken when wearing no make up, with the idea that once uploaded to Facebook along with a text donation to Cancer Research, it will encourage other to do the same. It’s been incredibly successful, Cancer research UK raised over £8,000,000 in just 6 days through this simple idea.
A question that out is often raised with trends like this one though, is how many people were involved for the benefit of the charity and raising its awareness, and how many were just using it as an excuse to be vain and get a string of compliments from their friends. There’s no question that it’s been a positive campaign, but it also begs the question, should we need a campaign like this to encourage us to give to charity? It claims to be raising awareness, but I’m pretty sure most of us know what cancer is and how to donate.
Nevertheless, £8,000,000 speaks for itself, this trend is one that has done an awful lot of good, besides reminding us what a miracle worker makeup can be…
Candy Crush is a trend that is somewhat concerning. It literally takes over peoples lives as they grow increasingly competitive in their attempts to beat the high scores of their friends. It’s intergration with Facebook has sent its popularity rocketing.
Its such a simple, yet highly addictive game. The concept of running out of lives and either having to wait for them to be reinstated, or pay for them to be awarded instantly, is an evil, yet genius move on the designers part. The game earns them hundreds of pounds from gamers who can’t bare to wait to beat that level that’s been bugging them for so long.
The success of this simple game really is mind blowing though.
King Digital Entertainment, the company behind Candy Crush, generated more than $450 million in revenue in the last quarter of last year, making it one of the largest interactive entertainment franchises of all time.
Candy Crush had an average of 93 million daily active users in December, more than 1 billion games played per day, and it accounted for 78% of the company’s overall revenue in the fourth quarter.
30,000,000 views in just over week. Facebook and Twitter shares sent YouTube video ‘Look Up’ very viral indeed. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s only a matter of time before someone on your newsfeed will be kind enough to enlighten you.
Essentially it’s a spoken word film, aimed at us, the online generation, with the intention of inspiring us to put down our phones and have a conversation, or pick up a good book. But we have kindles now right?
As wonderful and well intended as the video is, you can’t help but think its a very critical, and yet rose-tinted perspective of life in today’s society. It’s another member of the ‘tech is ruining our lives’ club, a club that’s grown in popularity in recent times, but one that bases much of its argument on stereotypes. The video is right about a few things. Yes, many of us are guilty of missing out on some of the finer things in life when we’re glued to our screens, and yes, many of us would rather have an online conversation that interact with a human being in real life. But technology has made life so much more efficient, we’re more informed, more effective at carrying out tasks, and more capable of being self sufficient, so is it all that bad? And life away from the screen isn’t all that great for us young un’s anyway, certainly not as great as Look Up portrays anyway, there’s no lifelong partner waiting for us on the next street corner.
The video paints a picture of life away from technology as a fairy-tale, one that can be achieved with the simple act of switching off our devices. Is it really that achievable though? Or is that Candy Crush high-score worth another shot?
Miley is doing it, Iggy Azalea is doing it, Nicki Minaj is doing it and now it seems half the internet is doing it.
Urban Dictionary defines it as:
“The act of moving/ shaking ones ass/buns/bottom/buttocks/bum-bum in a circular, up-and-down, and side-to-side motion.”
That pretty much sums it up.
Yet this sexually suggestive dance move is taking our generation by storm, wiggling its way into our clubs and shaking its way into our social media. Youtube, Facebook and Vine are littered with videos of young women, and men, shaking their stuff, and we seem to love it.
Here’s a trend that has become a little bit more than that, its an ongoing obsession that has lasted years, and will probably last for years to come. Cats. It’s as simple as that. Just videos of cats going about their business, with comical consequences. The internet can’t get enough of them.
Cats seem to have an innate ability to entertain us. Whether they’re making terrifyingly odd noises, falling into the kitchen sink, or pulling funny faces, they never fail to make us chuckle. And of course the fact that they’re incredibly cute doesn’t do them any harm either.
Type ‘Cat videos’ into YouTube, and it’ll return 29,500,000 videos. Twenty nine and a half million. And there’s more added every day. Here’s just a few of the most popular:
Grumpy Cat shot to internet fame in 2012, first on Reddit, before following its feline friends to stardom on YouTube, thanks to its naturally unimpressed face. Its official channel now has just over 160,000 subscribers and 26,500,000 million views.
Here we have a trend that I’m not sure I completely understand. Flappy Bird is a very simple 2D mobile game that has become the latest craze. It is literally the most basic concept, tapping a bird to prevent it from hitting pipes as it flies. With over 50 million downloads, there must be something that makes this game so addictive.
Maybe it’s the sheer simplicity of this game that has made it so popular. There is no complicated storyline or a wide array of characters. It is simply a poorly drawn bird frolicking through a clear blue sky littered with pipes. What more could you want?!
We’re all accustomed to the traditional drinking games that usually kick-start a night out. There’s Ring of Fire, Higher or Lower and Beer Pong… all fairly straightforward and not too intense. The drinking game that has swept the nation all too recently however is Neknominate. This new source of drunken entertainment is an online drinking game that originated in Australia but has quickly made its way to the UK.
Why has this trend become so popular? Facebook is fueling it, but it’s probably because it involves what our generation do best…drinking. This and the social pressure that is placed on anyone who is nominated. If you’re nominated and don’t commit to a neknominate you are basically deemed a coward for the foreseeable future; hiding behind your news feed would be a good option at this point. This being said, the fad seems to have died down. Most likely due to the fact that everyone has already done it. What outrageous activities will social trends throw at us next!?
A six second video playing on a loop. Sounds pretty uninspiring. But the way in which its community has got behind Twitter owned Vine, has turned the mobile based social media site into one of the most popular sites for comedians to showcase their talents. With only 6 seconds to work with, Vine doesn’t leave much room for error, but those capable of using its stop motion techniques of recording are reaping the rewards that a looping video can have for comedy.
Vine’s sense of humour isn’t exactly subtle, with many Viner’s repeatedly using the same gimmicks, but its a formula that clearly works, with many amassing hundreds of thousands of followers. YouTube compilations of the stop motion videos reach millions of views, and dedicated Facebook groups such as Best Vines have over 20 million likes; the internet can’t get enough of them! Viners such Jerome Jarre and Logan Paul have almost reached celebrity status, and dedicate much of their lives to create these 6 second snippets of comedy.
So why is it so successful? The comedic impact of such a short video on a loop cannot be underestimated. Some vines are even funnier watched a second or third time. There’s no waiting around for the punchline, and the convenience of vine makes it difficult to resist having a quick session of watching between lectures or on the bus.
Put simply, vine delivers quality, convenient laughs every 6 seconds, and will have people coming back for more again and again.
Arms outstretched. Find your good side. Check your background. Snap. Upload to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, your blog, any other social media site deemed worthy of your face. Repeat. Times a million.
The amount of ‘selfies’ taken and uploaded to social media sites has exploded. The self portrait of the digital age has seen an existential rise recently, and rather worryingly, it shows no signs of slowing down. Type #me into Instagram and you’ll be treated to more than 232,000,000 selfies, a number that has grown by 150,000,000 in the last year alone.
Celebrities are fueling the craze, Justin Bieber and Rihanna to name just two of the guilty, regularly post pictures of themselves to social media for their fans to swoon over, and their fans follow suit without hesitation.
We’ve even been treated to a song based on the selfie, which went viral on YouTube amassing over 97,000,000 views, and debuted on the Billboard Dance/Electronic chart at 19.
So why do we do it? Why do we serve ourselves up for public consumption over and over again? Is it because we long for public admiration? Or is that ‘like’ or ‘retweet’ enough to give you a little confidence boost and put a spring in your step?
Either way, its certainly a trend that doesn’t look like we’ve seen the last of for a while, so get your smartphone out, get yourself in front of the bathroom mirror and snap to your hearts content.
#trend 