COVID-19 trends

Social media trends surface in pandemic

BY ISABELLE BOGAN

Staff Reporter

2020 has proven to be a tough year for many people, especially teachers and students. Through the challenges the pandemic has posed, people have found ways to entertain themselves while forced to isolate indoors, such as increased use of social media apps like TikTok, Youtube, Instagram and Snapchat.

“I’ve been on social media since 6th grade, and I’ve never seen it being used as much as it is now,” Junior Samantha Laing said.

An app that quickly became a user favorite is TikTok, where creators share content to entertain and positively influence users to remain hopeful during tough times. It has had over 2 million downloads since April, 2020. This app has helped people find creative outlets since social media has become a large part of daily routines.

Many Gen Z millennials, who take up the majority of the app users, are responsible for the new trends that have swept the internet. These include whipped coffee, quarantine vlogs and daily routines, singing and dancing challenges and more. People have also experimented with different styles and clothing, such as the indie and alternative skater styles, new makeup looks, like darker eyeliner and soap brows, and new hair styles, like curtain bangs and hair dye.

“One of my favorite trends that I have observed are the ways people have changed and dyed their hair and aren’t afraid to wear different types of clothing,” said senior Nicolette Cruz. “I like that people wear what they want with less judgement.”

Although many trends have stemmed from TikTok, Instagram has been the hub of trends as well. Younger people have become actively immersed in politics, and better educated on the presidential policies through educational posts and videos.

“I’ve observed that more people have a broader understanding of world issues online, because social media started as less educational than it is now”, said Human Biology teacher Camille Erskine. “It’s started a lot of conversations, and I hope that continues beyond the election and pandemic.”

Political discussions on social media and online have increased a lot since the start of the pandemic. However, although people have become a lot more politically aware, social media has become a lot more politicized. Everytime a user opens their phone and scrolls through their feed, it becomes impossible to escape politics.

“Social media has become even more politicized since the start of the pandemic”, said English and AVID teacher Jasmine Schimek. “People have very strong opinions online, there are posts about the protests and riots everywhere all, and it is becoming more

Social media has become even “ more politicized since the start of the pandemic.

Jasmine Schimek, English and AVID Teacher

anxiety-inducing to go on social media when it is all political.”

Another issue becoming more socially aware, although not at all a “trend”, is mental health and eating disorders. Users feel comfortable enough to share their mental health struggles such as depression and anxiety with others. People are doing better jobs at educating themselves in order to become better allies to their friends and family. People have also shared ways to have the safest and best recovery themselves.

“Students have demonstrated excellent resilience, compassion and openness to trying to be super positive of others during these times, and this energy is catching on”, said English teacher Jane Woodman. “People are realizing the importance of being extra kind and supportive of each other, and it starts to show on the screen during classes, and people feed off of that.”

However, there have also been a lot of negative social media trends regarding body types. Trends like the “hourglass challenge”, where girls wear tight clothes to show off their figures and “What I Eat in a Day”, where people show users their diets, are negative. These trends result in more insecurities and pressure to adhere to social norms based on what is considered a beautiful body. More than one-third of Americans reported their mental health decreasing since the start of the pandemic, and 60 percent say the virus has affected their daily lives (Wan, William; The Washington Post), and any awareness brought onto these issues is positive and helpful.

“Even though there has been a lot of positivity on the internet, I’ve also seen a big spike in workout videos online, and people promoting unhealthy weight loss videos”, said Laing.

Although the pandemic has posed many hardships to society, social media presence has increased in different ways. Despite the positive trends that have surfaced, such as more political and mental health and eating disorder awareness, there have also been toxic trends. These include videos and trends that focus on changing people’s body images in negative ways. ”I think it is great that people are finding light-hearted things to do amidst these hard times, said Woodman.

Trends have helped to distract people from this difficult year and are something that people can share together in the comfort of their own homes.