Trend Setters OR Trend Slaves

We have come a long way from reading books to watching movies to watching those 10 minute YouTube videos to an even smaller form of content which is 1-minute Instagram reels or TikTok. Our attention span has steeply declined. Although the transition from reading books to scrolling on Instagram reels felt effortless, I wonder if the reverse would also be as smooth. It takes a great amount of concentration these days to go through an article without being diverted by the urge to check Instagram. God help the students who are actually trying to build their careers amidst such distractions. 

One recent distraction that has been doing rounds on Instagram lately in the name of "trends" is - making a song viral by the creators of the song by publishing an Insta reel with certain steps and passing it onto the audience as a challenge or a trend. 

Every time I see one such reel on my feed, I can't help but question the relevance of this content. The only way my mind comprehends this urge to create trending reels is - our inability to keep our mind free for doing stuff that really matters. We can't keep our hands away from scrolling and brain away from mindlessly wandering over the feeds, and hence following a trend is the easiest way to kill time and let our brain think that it's actually doing something good or something relevant. 

Another reason that I think aids in making us a generation of trend followers is the feeling of being left out, one that we commonly refer to as FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in millennial terms. We feel so ignorant when we are not aware of the latest dance reels or the celebrity vacation updates or other such bla bla details that we feel quite left out when we are not able to contribute in such bla bla conversation with our friends.  

I have often seen people getting into the elevator and immediately start scrolling quickly through their social media feed in their 10 seconds of elevator journey as if checking out those 8-9 feeds are gonna make or break their lives. 

People who don't have enough time to cook as basic as their own food spend all the available time in learning the steps of the latest dance reel and then carefully curating a caption to go with the trend before the trend itself becomes obsolete. Why? Because of FOMO, my darling.  

We are the generation with a bombardment of information, relevant or irrelevant is a topic for a different post. But, we have become so engrossed with absorbing these continuous streams of information, that we have forgotten to differentiate the usage of such information in our lives. 

I think if we could just pause for a second before absorbing a piece of information and questioning ourselves about the importance of that content, we'd be halfway free from trend slavery. The remaining half of the journey can be covered by simply listening to our heart and head. If we feel that a particular content would add to our being in some way, follow it. If not, we are experts on scrolling further. Go ahead and find a trend worth falling for or better, set a trend rather than simply scrolling through a 1-minute dance reel which anyway is gonna fade in 7 days or until a new trend is published by the creators who actually mint money out of your precious time.  

Remember my folks, THINK before blindly jumping onto the trend bandwagon.