rw-embedded-content[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/style/gen-z-trend-cycle.html]

The idea of being “in” is an economy in itself: streetwear drops, exclusive social clubs, and now, as we’ve seen, viral consumer social products, which we’ll be focusing on for this piece.

Trend brain, as I call it, encourages us to simplify everything online into something either buyable, understandable, or moral (and therefore worthy of consumption). We may tire of trend talk, but there is a devout certainty to the speed at which they’re cycled through. There are more choices than ever today, but seemingly less authority as to what... See more

Cultural products and consumer habits alike increasingly conform to the structures of digital spaces.

There’s a reason, for instance, that TikTok has declared not just a handful of but twenty-something aesthetics to be the next big thing in 2022: It’s because TikTok’s bread and butter is creating microtrends that flare up fast and die out faster. Whether or not they actually last (or exist in any meaningful way at all) is besides the point; as Kels... See more

Beyond simply copying her outfit, which isn’t the point, it speaks to a broader shift in consumer behavior: We want to hear from people, not corporations.