I’ve always found this a little funny, and also slightly scary. You open Instagram, scroll for 10 minutes, and suddenly everyone is wearing the same shoes, drinking the same coffee, using the same “life-changing” app. And half of them don’t even look happy about it. You can almost see it in their face. So yeah, why do people follow trends they don’t even like? I’ve done it too, so I’m not judging. Just thinking out loud here.
That quiet fear of being left out
Let’s be honest, a lot of trends survive purely because of FOMO. Nobody wants to feel like they’re standing outside a party, hearing music, while everyone else is inside having fun. Even if the music is bad. Social media makes this worse. Back in the day, you’d maybe feel left out in school or office. Now you feel left out globally. Twitter is trending something, reels are full of it, and suddenly not knowing about it feels like being dumb or outdated.
I once downloaded a hyped finance app because everyone on LinkedIn was talking about it like it would change how money works forever. I hated it. The interface annoyed me, notifications were nonstop, and still I kept using it for weeks. Why? Because I didn’t want to be the guy who “didn’t get it.” That’s not logic, that’s insecurity wearing a smart jacket.
Copying as a survival habit
Humans have always copied each other. Long before influencers, copying was how we survived. If everyone in the village ate a certain berry, you ate it too. You didn’t stop to say, “I don’t like the taste.” Trends today are kind of the same thing, just with better lighting and filters.
There’s actually this less talked about psychology thing where our brain assumes popularity equals safety. If many people are doing something, it must be okay, right? That’s why bad songs go viral too. Or weird fashion trends that look uncomfortable even on models. Our brain goes, “So many people can’t be wrong.” Spoiler alert: they can.
The algorithm is low-key bossy
People like to think they choose trends. Nah. Algorithms choose for them. Instagram, YouTube, even shopping apps quietly push the same stuff again and again until it feels familiar. And once something feels familiar, we confuse that with liking it.
There’s this stat I read somewhere, don’t remember the exact source so don’t quote me, but it said people are more likely to engage with content they’ve already seen multiple times, even if they didn’t like it initially. That explains why a song you hated on first listen suddenly lives rent free in your head.
I remember hating a viral reel audio so much. Two weeks later, I caught myself humming it while making tea. That was my villain origin story.
Social approval feels better than personal taste
Liking something privately doesn’t give the same dopamine hit as liking something publicly approved. Wearing an outfit you love is nice. Wearing an outfit that gets 300 likes is nicer. Sad, but true.
I’ve seen people trash a trend in private WhatsApp chats and then post it proudly on Instagram. The comments matter more than comfort. Even in finance or business trends, people talk about investing in things they don’t understand, just because everyone else is doing it. It’s like joining a gym just to post the membership card story and never going again.
Trends give people an identity shortcut
Building your own personality takes effort. Following trends is easy. You don’t need to think, you just adopt. Same slang, same opinions, same aesthetics. Boom, you belong.
On social media, especially TikTok, you’ll notice how fast people switch personalities based on trends. One month everyone is a minimalist. Next month everyone is romanticizing chaos. It’s less about belief, more about fitting into a temporary tribe.
I did this once with a productivity trend. Woke up at 5am, cold showers, journaling like a monk. Hated every second. Still posted about it. Why? Because it made me look disciplined, even if I was miserable.
Money and trends are weird best friends
From a financial angle, trends are expensive. Fast fashion, new gadgets, crypto hype, online courses that promise passive income. People buy first, question later. It’s like ordering food because your friend said it’s amazing, even though you already know you don’t like spicy food.
Lesser-known thing, many companies rely on trend fatigue. They know most people won’t stay loyal. They just need you to buy once before the next trend replaces it. That’s why trends move so fast now. Slow trends don’t make money.
So why do we keep doing it?
Because being human is messy. We want acceptance, validation, and sometimes an easy answer to “who am I?” Trends offer all of that in a ready-made package. Even if we don’t like it, we like not feeling alone.
I’m slowly trying to pause before jumping on trends now. Asking myself simple stuff like, would I still do this if nobody saw it? Half the time the answer is no. And that’s okay. Awareness itself feels like progress.
Not every trend is bad. Some are genuinely useful or fun. The problem starts when we follow them on autopilot. Disliking something but still doing it is a weird kind of self-betrayal, if you think about it.
Anyway, next time you see a trend everywhere and feel that itch to join, maybe stop for a second. Or don’t. We’re all just figuring it out, one viral thing at a time.