Viral Trends of the Pandemic
There’s no doubt about it, this last year-and-a-half was no smooth sailing. But now that more than nearly 67 percent of the US population has received one vaccine shot and global lockdowns are beginning to unwind, the world is finally beginning to open back up. Every cloud has its silver lining—so, let’s take the time to revisit some of the moments in the past year-and-a-half that actually managed to make surviving the pandemic somewhat bearable.
TikTok
Most of the items on this list are, in some shape or form, related to this behemoth—either originating on or popularized by this app—so let’s go ahead and get this one out of the way first. How many of your friends had TikTok prior to the pandemic? For me, I can count on one hand, and it’s an app I used to associate with my 16-year-old sister and her friends. TikTok’s one of those things that you downloaded as a joke last March, but after countless nights of scrolling through your “For You” page (FYP) long after your bedtime, you’re not so certain it’s a joke anymore…
TikTok Food Trends, aka FoodTok
Some of the wackiest food trends have been popularized this past year à la TikTok, and I’m not ashamed to admit that I participated in most of these. Who could forget the amount of bread, especially banana bread and cloud bread, we all baked at the beginning of quarantine? Since then, there’s been plenty of creative trends, including whipped coffee (say goodbye to your arm muscles), Oreo mug cakes, the mind-blowing four-way Tortilla folding hack, and most recently—pasta chips. Let’s also not forget the infamous TikTok pasta that caused a global shortage of feta cheese. Admittedly, some of these make less sense to me, such as scooping cake using wine glasses, but overall, my culinary expertise has grown exponentially due to FoodTok.
Tiger King and other Netflix shows
The infamous Tiger King (aka Joe Exotic) brought us many joys in the early days of the pandemic. Coincidentally, the Tiger King was actually apprehended in a neighboring town from mine. This documentary series, which on the surface seemed to be about an eccentric big cat keeper who’d lost the presidential bid, highlighted on a deeper level a murder-for-hire attempt (and maybe one actually successful murder?), polygamy and…a sex cult. Other, less wacky shows which were popularized during the pandemic include “Bridgerton” (and its musical spinoff), “The Witcher” and “Shadow and Bone”.
Among Us and Animal Crossing
Among Us surpassed 217 million downloads last November.
Among Us always makes me nervous, because I’m a terrible liar, but nonetheless, it’s been one of the most popular quarantine pastimes along with Animal Crossing. Among Us surpassed 217 million downloads last November, while the popularity of Animal Crossing caused the Nintendo Switch to be sold out for months.
Netflix Party
I forget how hard it was to watch anything with a friend prior to the existence of Netflix Party. Now, watching movies with someone not in your proximity has never been easier—you can pause together, fast-forward or playback together, and even chat about what’s going on as you watch. Now, Netflix Party has rebranded as Teleparty and extended to other platforms such as HBO, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus, making it even easier to binge-watch with your friends.
Twisty candles and foam mirrors
Along with other DIYs, twisty candles and foam mirrors exploded in popularity last year—how many of us haven’t seen at least one crochet video appear on our FYP?
TikTok Celebs
Not only has a new class of social media royalty emerged via TikTok, but old celebrities have shot again to the spotlight as well. TikTokers such as Bella Poarch, Kris Collins, Addison Rae, and the D’Amelio sisters have been minted into the mainstream—with music, reality shows, and even movie deals being announced. I find Bella Poarch’s story especially interesting—she posted her first TikTok in April of 2020, and to date, has the most-liked TikTok of all time and just released “Build a B*tch”, which has 216 million views on YouTube at the time of writing. Other celebrities such as Louis Partridge, Debby Ryan, and Tom Felton (with DracoTok) have also enjoyed the spotlight.
Taylor Swift
No one expected Taylor Swift to give us not one, two, but three albums during the pandemic. With “Folklore” and “Evermore”, Swift completely revamped her sound and style, and with the release of her own re-recording of Fearless, which includes several new previously-unheard songs, Swift continues to gain the upper hand in her very public brawl with Scooter Braun and her previous label, Big Machine Records. Seems like Taylor used her free time during the pandemic to actually be productive, something we could all take a page from…
Chloe Ting
At the beginning of the pandemic, I don’t know a single girl my age who wasn’t participating in Chloe Ting’s challenges—be it her weight loss, summer shred, or flat stomach programs. Her most popular video, an abs workout challenge, now has over 372 million views on YouTube. Along with Chloe Ting, we also saw a surge in other fitness YouTubers such as Pamela Reif, Blogilates and MadFit.
The Strawberry Dress
Who could ever forget the Strawberry Dress? Designed by Lirika Matoshi, it exploded after plus-size model Tess Holliday wore it to the Grammys in January, with the perfect aesthetic for cottagecore, inspiring numerous dupes. A black version of the dress also went viral. For a period of time, whenever I closed my eyes, bright pink chiffon ruffles and glittery strawberries were burned into my retinas. Check out this article for more viral TikTok fashion.
OnlyFans
We’ll wrap this list up with OnlyFans, an online platform where creators can make money mostly off selling explicit content. It boomed in popularity during the pandemic, spurred in part by celebrities—Beyoncé referenced the site in her Savage remix, and since then, influencers like Bella Thorne (who earned $1 million after a day), Blac Chyna, and Tana Mongeau have joined. Thorne’s presence on the site has been mired with controversy after she scammed fans with a “nude” photo that was not actually nude, causing OnlyFans to implement platform-wide restrictions. Even notorious Instagram “scammer” Caroline Calloway joined the action, supposedly using her earnings to pay off the debt from a book deal that never materialized.
