You see the way I coined the title? The way it drew you in? Very demure, very cutesy, very mindful. I don’t do too much. I’m not crazy with it. I’m very mindful.
If you live on the internet, like most of us do, let’s face it, you must have heard these three phrases a billion times already. I mean, we only recently got off the ‘delulu’ train and ‘bratt summer’ craze, and here we are with a few new trendy phrases.
In the last few days, these phrases have been thrown around social media so much, one would say they have been abused. But that’s routine with every new trend, isn’t it? Because if it isn’t abused, then is it really trending?
Before I get into telling you how TikTok determines and sets trends, I’ll give you a few examples of this trend abuse. Remember when Crocs first became a thing? It was sold as an ugly yet comfortable footwear. The first set of people to buy Crocs were the Yeezy admirers, the same people who would buy shirts with holes in them. Yes, they were crazy, and so were Crocs, because why wear footwear with holes in it?
Soon after, it caught on. More people began wearing it for comfort- more celebrities, everyday people who wouldn’t buy a Yeezy shirt. People who seemed sane. People like me! Now we have people walking around, wearing Crocs with suits, Crocs with their native attires, Crocs with wedding dresses, Crocs with everything! Portable is wearing Crocs with agbada and Justin Bieber is wearing Crocs to the Grammys. This is a classic example of trend abuse!
Mind you, the ugly crocodile X Clogs-inspired footwear, Crocs, have been around for decades, since 2002, to be precise, but once the Millennials and Gen Zs decided it was cool, abuse was inevitable. Maybe I haven’t convinced you yet. So, let’s try another example.
It’s 2020. COVID-19 is at an all-time high, and we’re all stuck at home with our families, though many of us would rather be online with people we don’t care about. Perhaps it’s because we’re seeking validation, or maybe we’re just bored, tired, and scared, looking for some light relief. Everyone is going through a difficult time; it’s a pandemic, and death rates are rising.
With not much else to do, people start to share what’s really on their minds. Then, a random person on the internet decides that person isn’t “woke” enough, and suddenly, they’re ‘called out’ and cancelled. Maybe that person did mess up. But years later, cancel culture has clearly been abused. People are getting cancelled for expressing their views or simply living their lives just because some group of people found it offensive, forgetting that we are not all supposed to agree on all subject matters. Now, I’m not saying that everyone who gets cancelled doesn’t deserve it—R. Kelly, a serial sexual and gender-based abuser, absolutely does. But J.K. Rowling being cancelled for stating her views on gender and sex? That’s definitely an example of trend abuse at its peak.
Well, now that you’ve understood trend abuse, let’s get down to how TikTok sets these trends. We’ll use the currently trending phrases as our case study. Do you know why? Because I’m very cutesy with it.
Some weeks ago, Jools Lebron, a beauty influencer on TikTok posted a video of one of her makeup looks, telling people how to act right. She stated this in her video:
“See how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful. I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work. See how I look? Very presentable. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma, not demure.”
Before this satirical video and the phrases went viral, demure used to mean something else. It was previously used to define a lady who was modest and shy. But with demure being the most used phrase in the past week, it has come to mean classy, composed, and well, cutesy. Never mind that cutesy is not a real word. It is now.
“Your demure is what it means to you. It’s being mindful and considerate of the people around you, but also of yourself and how you present to the world,” The TikTok star, Jools told CBS Mornings in an interview.
Demure is not the first word to take on another meaning after it goes viral or becomes trendy. Other examples include; Cook/ let them cook, roast, baby girl, catfish. Can you believe catfish isn’t something you can cook? Letting them cook has nothing to do with the act of cooking and neither does roasting. And this may come as a shock to you, but when we say baby girl, we are in no way referring to a newborn baby, who happens to be a girl.
To be fair, every era comes with its own speak. For example, before the digital devices we know today as computers, a computer was an actual human being who could just do calculations and computations. So, some of these words and phrases are just the speak that has come with the internet and social media era. Words like handle, follow, tag, troll, cloud, and even viral have taken on what I would call internet-meanings. And that’s totally Gucci! Which was, by the way, just a fashion brand before we decided it meant good.
But why do these trends catch on so quickly these days? And why is it so easy to go viral? Short answer – TikTok. Read on for the long answer.
Just when we had gotten accustomed to the usual suspects as it concerns social media (Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, X, YouTube), TikTok hit the scene! And it instantly became a hit with the Gen Zs and even Millenials, with its bite-sized video content. At first, it seemed like a thing that only the young ones did but now, big companies, brands and organisations depend on TikTok to sell their products, advertise to their target audience and if possible, trend. Because once something goes viral on TikTok, it goes viral worldwide.
TikTokers have brought old songs back to life, putting money in the pockets of artists who never saw it coming. They’ve turned fresh tracks into instant hits and even brought back fashion trends our grandparents used to wear. On TikTok, anything or anyone can blow up, and it’s all thanks to something I like to call ‘attention-mining.’
TikTok has been able to mine the world’s attention and get it to look exactly where it wants us to look. Unlike other social media platforms that have been around long enough for our parents to figure it out, TikTok is fresh and the majority of its users are young. So, what happens when the parents go on a trip? That’s right. The kids throw a party and break stuff! And that’s exactly what’s going on right now on these TikTok streets.
TikTok feels like one giant party! It is the new kid on the block, and like all new kids on the block, it is synonymous with fun, interesting, cool, but also mysterious, with lots of potential. On TikTok, people are free to be who they are without constantly looking over their shoulders. But there’s one more thing about the new kid on the block – they always find their clique. So, TikTok has created space not just for people to be themselves, but also for them to find other people who are like them. They form cliques and groups, follow each other, and like each other’s stuff. And even in extreme cases, gift each other!
On TikTok, information, ideas and content fly faster than you can read this sentence. It is also an easy way to vet what is truly interesting and funny. Since everyone in that party is being true to themselves, if your content slaps, they’ll tell you by reposting, commenting, and even using your sound. That’s why challenges thrive on TikTok. One person does something silly or funny, and if a group of people find it interesting, they will emulate it, no holding back. And there you have it – A challenge is born!
But…of course, you can’t stop the bandwagon mentality sometimes. So, people also tend to emulate concepts and ideas if someone they admire does it. These are the people we call influencers, who have a large following and fans, who would jump into the ocean if they threatened to. So, influencers and celebrities alike, who get huge engagement on their content and have a huge following, are crucial to trend culture.
I said all of that to say this. In today’s digital society, TikTok sets the trend by having a platform that encourages people to be themselves, but also by attention-mining. They have the youths’ eyes all glued on their app, and if, by a slice of luck, the celebrities and influencers who are the movers and shakers of content decide that something is cool, interesting, or funny, the entire world will begin thinking it is. The truth is, not all trends are actually cool; but the moment a thing has been TikTok-approved, I guess it becomes cool, and who am I to say otherwise?
That’s the summary up there, but in practical terms, it involves multiple influencers or celebrities reposting a video or content, using its sound or recreating it, multiple hashtags, and billions of likes. Take Jools Lebron’s satirical phrases, for example.
Celebrities like Penn Badgley, Sophia Bush, and Jennifer Lopez were a part of it early on. And hundreds of influencers have bought into it. Now, even top-tier brands and organizations like Delta Travels, Netflix and E.L.F. Cosmetics are using it to drive sales. And that is very demure of them!
TikTok trends are so impactful to brands that even top and sophisticated brands like Vogue have a TikTok trend tracker, just to be able to stay in touch with its core audience. These phrases have been in circulation for a few weeks already. But I know, I can sense that the trend-abuse is fast approaching.
I’m not against trends. In fact, I think it’s one of the most brilliant inventions of the social media era. TikTok trends are the closest to world peace humanity has experienced since we all thought the world was ending in 2012. So, I encourage trends for world unity (of some sort). However, I stand firmly against trend abuse. Trends should have an expiration date. We should only allow a thing to trend for three weeks, and after that, we gently say goodbye to it before it gets to the point of abuse. A notice of ‘NO LONGER TRENDING’ should go out once we hit the three-week point. And anyone who abuses it after that is free to be held hostage in the social media court.
There are rare cases of trends that come and then stay; they become a huge part of pop culture. I am not referring to those trends right now. I am referring to the trends we know are not here to stay.
So, do not tattoo ‘very demure’ on your face, do not name your child, ‘steeze’ and definitely, do not keep using the word ‘thot.’ It is no longer trendy. This is how to be a good citizen of the world. Let trends come when they come and let them go when they go. Don’t do too much. Don’t go crazy with it. Be very demure and very mindful. What do you think of my three-week expiration date on trends? Also, what are some of your favorite trends of the social media era?
