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Trend cycles are incredibly short nowadays. It seems like as soon as I start to understand one craze, another comes around to replace it the very next day. There must be a massive graveyard of forgotten fads buried deep in our memories.
So today, we’re going to dig up some of those old trends to remind you just how big they once were. From segways to fidget spinners, Redditors have recently been discussing all of the former “next big things” that are nowhere to be found today. Enjoy reading about all of these trends that had surprisingly short lifespans, and be sure to upvote the ones that you expected to become much more popular!
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#1
There was a trend years ago where people would collect trash from river and post it.
Of course a good trend like this did not last long.
RELATED:
#3
The whole 3D craze back in like 2010. Everybody thought it was the future after Avatar came out in theaters. EVERY movie tried to be 3D after that, there were 3D TVs, 3D phones, the Nintendo 3DS. And I think the craze disappeared in like year because it gave people headaches 😂.
#4
Those that got a mustache tattoo on the side of your finger…….y’all ok?
Downtown_Bread_:
I was like 12 when this trend was going on, and thank god they don't let 12-year-olds get tattoos because that would have been me.
#5
Remember in the early 2010s when there was a frozen yogurt place on every block? 2-3 years later and they all seemed to vanish and nobody wants froyo no mo.
#7
Segways were going to revolutionize transport.
ackmondual:
It was predicted that whole cities would be redesigned to accommodate them!
#10
S’well bottles.
Replaced with Stanley cups.
I wonder what overpriced portable liquid holder comes next?
#11
Pokémon Go.
I know some folks still play, but once upon a time I remember taking a walk in the park and people were just on their phones pointing them this way and that and walking in circles and then there’d be a group huddled together cause they were taking down a gym or something.
#12
Google Glass. It was supposed to be the future, but it disappeared faster than you could say "augmented reality".
goathill:
I do think this will get big decades from now when tech has caught up. It was simply released too early and under-delivered.
#13
Pogs? Anyone? Am I too old?
I had a kicka*s beavis and butthead slammer.
Smuff23:
I killed pogs at my school as a kid. I had a shredded 8-ball slammer that would turn whole stacks over like 95% of the time and 95 might be a low guess. Too many kids started complaining and I ended up with too many pogs.
Granted it probably should have died as soon as they realized we were gambling the pogs.
#16
The fidget spinner craze was wild! One minute, everyone was spinning them like they were the coolest toy on the planet, and the next, they were collecting dust in drawers. It’s like they went from “Look at me, I’m stress-relieving!” to “Why do I have 12 of these?” faster than you can say “what was I thinking?”.
#18
Being a crypto-currency investor, for about three months everyone thought they were wolf of Wall Street, now they are all back to be stray dogs of skid row.
#19
Feather earrings in 2011.
SRB112:
I didn't notice that in 2011, but I remember when they were popular in the '70s.
#21
Hypercolor shirts.
beyondthunderdrone:
I remember making out with my girlfriend one time when she was wearing a Hypercolor shirt. She had to cool it off in the car AC to change the color back before going inside so her parents wouldn't notice she had been so hot! lol
#22
People dressing up like creepy clowns and showing up in random places at night. I think all it took was for a few of them to get their a*ses tore up by the dogs of a few of their people targets, and it suddenly went away real quick.
#24
Grills (the teeth version)- for a hot second there, people were putting all sorts of bling on their teeth- kind of when that Nelly song “Grillz” came out in 2005. I was in dental hygiene school and I saw the tooth jewels and art all of the time. I’d say around 2008 it started to kind of die down and now I almost never see them.
** I did see that Simone Biles has tooth gems but her sister is in the dental field, so go figure!
#25
Slime. My daughter had a slime factory at home and was selling it at school. Every piece of furniture has slime remnants still embedded in it.
#27
I forget what it was called but people would film a video where everyone in a group froze in place.
Ok_Cupcake_5226:
The mannequin challenge!
#28
NFTs.
WardenCommCousland:
I was so freaking glad when this went away. My stepsister's now ex-husband was hard into crypto and was trying to sell everyone, including my dad and stepmother, on NFTs. He was visiting clubs trying to sell near retirement-age Boomers on investing in them to 'diversify [their] portfolios' and talking about how they were going to be the biggest thing to ever hit finance.
And then they bottomed out. To my knowledge, my parents didn't invest in them, but my step-sister's finances were not in a great place for a while.
#31
The Live Strong type rubber bracelets. I remember my mom driving me to multiple stores when I was in 3rd grade to find some. I soon discovered a rash from them.
#32
Guys wearing two polo shirts and popping up both collars.
imakedankmemes:
This couldn’t die fast enough.
unhinged_behavior:
I remember a short-lived trend of polo shirts that had words printed in the collar so when you popped it up, the person behind you could read the word 'DOPE' or something. I worked at a PacSun at the time, and we sold SO MANY of those.
#33
Cup stacking was big for a minute, the middle school even had cup stacking competitions after school.
#35
The feathers or glitter strands you can attach to your hair. Use to be all the rage in high school.
#36
For some reason collectively during 90s we all decided we liked big band music like Brian Setzer Orchestra, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies or The Squirrel Nut Zippers.
#37
No one’s mentioned Wordle yet? Everyone I know was posting about their performance for a while. Then the New York Times bought it and it all stopped.
#39
Threads (Facebook’s Twitter replacement). I know it’s still going, but there was a week when everyone was like “Yeah, threads!” then most of us dropped it.
#41
Apparently Brat Girl Summer is over, and I still haven't worked out what it is yet.
I am a 42 year old man so not sure I need to be worried, but still...
#44
The raid area 51 they can't stop us all party in the desert at area 51 could have been an annual thing, but COVID stopped that from happening.
#45
Metaverse.
nellirn:
I know a guy who spent $12K on a plot of land in the metaverse. I still can't understand it.
#46
There was an extremely brief moment in time when everyone and their brother had some kind of PDA. They were on track to become consumer devices when previously like business dudes had a Palm Pilot and that was about it. They were even trying to build PDAs into handheld gaming consoles. HP, Compaq, everyone was making them with Windows embedded version on them, but then the iPhone happened and *poof*.
#48
The Harlem Shake.
simpersly:
It's so weird that a video with people in costumes humping the air turned into a meme with what was essentially a scientific formula.
#58
Flappy bird.
It got pulled from the play store, and people didn't know about sideloading APKs.... I started charging $5 just for my time to help people out. I was so busy I kept raising prices as demand skyrocketed and ended up having to charge $100 to install it on people's phones and I was still getting dozens of calls/emails every hour.
Only lasted for a couple weeks, but boy was it great while it lasted. I even ended up selling a $250 phone for over $400 because it had flappy bird installed on it.
Yay Capitalism!
#59
The mobile game, Draw Something. It got hugely popular quickly, then purchased, then everyone stopped playing altogether.
#62
Fixie bikes. I always thought it was a weird trend. Who doesn't want gearing when you get to a hill?
#63
Dubstep/raves as a part of mainstream culture.
I get that it has existed for a long time and continues to be popular. However from like 2010-2012 it felt inescapable and started to bleed into other facets of culture. Suddenly different genres started to incorporate dubstep-esque bass drops into their music, you’d see commercials with dubstep music, and the rave scene was popular with teens and young adults along with the d***s that came with it, namely MDMA. Skrillex seemed like one of the top artists in all of pop music for a bit there.
Suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere, people seemed to be over it. I know it’s still a popular subgenre of music but it seems to have retreated back into the underground. I’m not sure what happened there.
#64
Silly Bands. I am ready for them to come back!
NomadFeet:
God, the hold these had on my fourth grader and everyone at her elementary school before they were banned, no pun intended. I found these things in my house for YEARS afterward and just used them as actual rubber bands.
#65
I miss RPAN, on ‘older Reddit.’ Feels like forever ago.
That was so fun, to be able to scroll through peoples’ little live shows, walking around various cities; singing or making music; drawing; I had people I waited for every week, like a DJ guy who’d play house music every Saturday morning. Whistleface!!
Reddit is my only social media, so I don’t have, like, an Instagram or anything, or twitch or whatever else, where I would be able to follow people posting videos like these.
That’s probably why it was taken down - there’s a ton of this content out there, but none that I actually see, but maybe didn’t have a place on Reddit.
RPAN seemed really popular, until the attendance to these just dropped off suddenly, and Reddit removed it.
Not a huge trend; just a Reddit trend I was sad to see go.
What do you think ?
Kathy Dragonfly 1 year ago
Second Life! Everybody who had internet had an account, the company i worked for back then tried to open a branch in there and so many people were worried that life would fully shift to virtual
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
The turnover of trends has accelerated since the advent of social media / the internet. In the 60s-90s trends travelled slowly and had longevity, hula hoops, skateboards, BMX, yo-yos, clackers, deeley boppers, fluorescent socks, leg warmers, tie dye shirts, hand held Nintendo lcd games, you name it, the trends took time to move across countries and continents. Now my daughter is watching TikTok videos produced by her favourite k-pop band (Stray Kids) in real time and their ideas are global in seconds. Sadly this means they disappear just as quickly. Slow media will never return but it had its good points.
Kathy Dragonfly 1 year ago
Second Life! Everybody who had internet had an account, the company i worked for back then tried to open a branch in there and so many people were worried that life would fully shift to virtual
Gavin Johnson 1 year ago
The turnover of trends has accelerated since the advent of social media / the internet. In the 60s-90s trends travelled slowly and had longevity, hula hoops, skateboards, BMX, yo-yos, clackers, deeley boppers, fluorescent socks, leg warmers, tie dye shirts, hand held Nintendo lcd games, you name it, the trends took time to move across countries and continents. Now my daughter is watching TikTok videos produced by her favourite k-pop band (Stray Kids) in real time and their ideas are global in seconds. Sadly this means they disappear just as quickly. Slow media will never return but it had its good points.
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