You’re Thinking About Online Trends All Wrong

For the last decade on social media, Ruby Thelot has asked himself the same questions when he encounters viral content online: Is this an ad? Is this account real? Is this an actual trend or just a fluke?

While trends like “6-7” and “looksmaxxing” have recently broken containment, not every new term or subcultural phenomenon has real mainstream staying power. Remember, in years past, when tech bros tried to make NFTs a thing? Or that period when audio chat apps like Clubhouse were pitched as the future of social media but quickly flamed out? (A prediction WIRED was not immune to.)

Thelot, a cyber-ethnographer and media theory researcher at NYU, says overestimating trends happens because the internet has become “balkanized,” with each of us on our own “digital island,” where most seemingly viral phenomena are really just the result of force-fed consumption. This is...

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