My generation, which I’m gonna go ahead and define as those currently in high school, is one that goes through trends like a baby goes through diapers. We were born in the 1990’s – specifically from ’93 to’96 – and we are facing, or will soon face, the challenge of college. It seems, however, a little hard to focus on the future when we livein a world of the present.
The world today is so focused on the latest and greatest trend; this is just magnified in my generation by the changing times and the already limited attention span of the average teenager. The past month works as a great example of how quickly trends come and go.
The end of February held an obsession with a new iPhone app called Temple Run, an admittedly addicting and never ending game in which you run through various temples avoiding monkeys which are chasing you and a plethora of obstacles. By the first week of March, Temple Run was no longer popular because all anyone was talking about was the revival of an old favorite: the cinnamon challenge.
The cinnamon challenge is a horrid little game wherein one attempts to ingest a spoonful of cinnamon. The challenge is done by those wishing to understand what it feels like to suffocatein a sand storm. Trust me; it’s not fun. However, it is for some reason a popular trend. Again, this lasted only a week because in the second week of March, rapper Drake’s latest song “The Motto” became popular.
It was, specifically, the actual motto which became popular. In the song, Drake says “You only live once; that’s the motto nigga, YOLO”. All of a sudden, every teen was justifying their bad decisions by saying YOLO. All of Twitter was taken over by #YOLO. I am a fan of how funny this trend actually was. It’s just an old saying that a rapper inadvertently brought back. People still say it occasionally (I am one of those people. It’s a fun thing to make fun of) but, still, it had its week of fame.
The next week held the giant swirling controversial mess that was Kony 2012. Kony is an African warlord who, in Uganda,took advantage of homeless children by using the girls as sex slaves and training the boys to be his soldiers. A documentary about this man went viral on every social networking website with the same message: repost this video; spread the message.
Every lazy internet user could simply repost a video and feel that they did their good deed of the day.Too bad the organization Invisible Children has shady finances and their CEO had a naked, drunken breakdown on a sidewalk a week later.
The pattern of picking up trends and then dropping them a week later in favor of something more interesting continues to this day. The week after the whole KONY2012 thing,everyone became obsessed with a new iPhone app called Draw Something. Then, this past week became the week of The Hunger Games since the movie of the popular book of the same title was being released. I must admit though, I was excited that people were excited about The Hunger Games. It’s a great movie andan even better movie.
I am of the opinion that, while trends do define a generation and an era, the speed with which my generation has been switching between trends is alarming. We already have short attention spans, let’s not increase the damage. Can we maybe all just slow down and appreciate the moment and think about everything beyond the present?