By: Ashly Hospodka
Do you want to know how to predict the next trend? Let me tell you.
I’ve heard before that when a trend becomes so popular it gets oversaturated, the next big thing will be the EXACT opposite. You can apply this to fashion trends, social media, and in music.
For example, the curated feeds of Instagram: girls done up in hair and makeup with their best outfit on, captured in a planned photoshoot and edited with an obvious filter, led to the rise of “photo dumps” an unedited shot of life.
The rise of short form content on TikTok led to the popularity of long-form video essays on YouTube.
Vans and the no-show socks that came from them morphed into gen-z’s obsession with crew socks.
Uniformed and mainstream styles became the era of different aesthetics and fashion individualism.
From trying to always find something new and now, as a culture we returned to our roots and glorified nostalgia in TV, movies, and music.
There is no end to this cycle. When we collectively tire of something, the next possible outcome is completely different to satisfy the boredom that resulted from the last popular thing. The prediction of trends has become quite predictable indeed.
With the impending TikTok ban, everyone wonders, will there be an app to replace it? My prediction is that the replacement will be nothing like the current algorithm or interface. No one can replicate what TikTok has done in a way that will satisfy the masses as it did. If you cannot improve on the app, you will have to replace it; with something so different, I won’t dare to predict it.
You can either follow trends or create them. Find a void in the market, the opposite style from what’s trending, and look in the past for ideas of what will be in the future. The cyclical structure of our existence doesn’t only apply in nature. Even in a modern world, we are cyclical beings, who follow the patterns of life, death, and rebirth.