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Social media dominates our lives, trends pop up on the platforms almost weekly and take on a life of their own.
While some stick around and become a monumental moment, others pass by just as quick as they came up.
In the year when TikTok embraced live shopping, Hawk Tuah girl became a celebrity overnight, and AI hit the mainstream, social media has seen a lot.
The short-form video platforms have performed well, while new entries like Bluesky are starting to make some moves in the industry. But let’s look at what shouldn’t be taken into next year as we round up the seven worst social media trends of 2024.
Engagement Farming
As people are vying for clicks and attention, engagement farming has become a huge problem across a number of social media platforms in 2024.
The practice involves using manipulative strategies to increase engagement metrics like comments, shares, and likes. It’s often very click-bait focused and while it generates high engagement, it becomes more about quantity over quality.
X owner and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk spoke out about the practice on his platform as he even made adjustments to prevent it from happening. In October, he curtailed the use of bold text and other formatting from appearing on timelines due to it being ‘abused for engagement farming.’
Any accounts doing engagement farming will be suspended and traced to source
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2024
He’s not the only one to be affected by it either, as the Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said in October: “…We’ve seen an increase in engagement-bait on Threads and we’re working to get it under control. More to come.”
Even well-known companies have tried their hand at engagement farming-related tactics, like the ‘look between y and i’ trend which was replicated across a number of brand accounts.
who's going to see Spider-Man 2 in theaters tonight…
look between Y and I on your keyboard pic.twitter.com/c6FnP3ToYW
— Sony (@Sony) April 23, 2024
Gallon challenge
Every year, trends appear that are more dangerous than entertaining. This year has seen several variations take place including the ‘gallon challenge’ which has had a resurgence after first being made popular on the MTV series Jackass.
It’s where people try to drink an entire gallon of milk within 60 minutes without vomiting. While that doesn’t sound too bad at first glance, the average human stomach’s capacity is around 1.5 liters which is less than half a gallon.
As you’d expect, it’s left people feeling ill as the body attempts to deal with getting rid of the new contents.
AI Content
Although many can argue artificial intelligence has become helpful in their day-to-day life, its emergence has led to a huge influx of AI-related content and comments.
A recent study has found that 54% of long posts on LinkedIn are likely to be AI-generated. This type of content surged from January to February 2023, coinciding with ChatGPT’s release.
I just don't know which LinkedIn replies are AI-generated and which ones aren't
Pretty soon LinkedIn will be AIs talking to each other
— Nat Miletic (@natmiletic) December 8, 2024
While its usage has allowed people to create more content than they may have done previously, there appears to be a slight disconnect taking place on platforms as the human connection is overtaken by technology.
Rage-baiting
Rage-baiting can be classed as another form of engagement farming, but some users are going all in on the trend as it can generate high returns.
It’s seen on platforms like X, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook and unlike its click-baiting counterparts, it involves purposefully making people angry.
It does so by stating a controversial opinion or enacting or detailing a fake scenario – just to enrage people which leads to a high view count along with masses of comments.
This growth in the trend throughout the year has come as social media platforms invest more into payment programs for creators. It’s through these programs that people are awarded huge amounts of money for generating engagement.
A TikTok creator based in New York, named Winta Zesu, told the BBC she had earned $150,000 from posting on social media.
One of her series is named ‘Pretty girl’ which documents the life of a model in the big city whose main problem is being too pretty, but some viewers don’t realize she’s playing a character.
@winta_zesu
‘Chroming’
Another dangerous social media trend that has unfortunately gained traction in 2024 is what’s known as ‘chroming.’
This involves someone inhaling dangerous chemicals, with the trend seeing people inhale the inside of aerosol cans, paint, or even cleaning products.
Not only can it cause brain damage, cardiac arrest, addiction, respiratory issues, and liver and kidney damage, but the trend has led to teenage deaths.
An 11-year-old in the UK died due to the trend, as did a 13-year-old in Australia who suffered a cardiac arrest after inhaling chemicals.
In an interview with LADBible, the American physician Dr. Michael McKinney explained the horrors behind the trend: “The use of inhalants may lead to the sudden failure of the heart commonly known as ‘sudden sniffing death syndrome’ and this may happen to a first-time user of the product.”
Out-of-touch influencers
Although influencing is still a relatively new career, its appeal has changed. While it isn’t dying out already, it is evolving.
Some influencers are facing criticism from social media users for being ‘out of touch,’ as a mass appeal for more authenticity has been called.
A number of moments have occurred, including when UK YouTuber and TikToker Anastasia Kingsnorth was sharing news about free shipping from a clothing boutique if people spend £1,000 (roughly $1,271).
That caused shock waves to run through social media, as people suggested they would be spending that money on bills instead of clothing while others commented they don’t earn that amount in a month.
https://www.tiktok.com/@ukinfluencers/video/7327349675277749537
This has resulted in micro-influencers being on the rise. These are people who also create content, but they have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Some view these accounts as being more genuine as their lives tend to be more relatable.
Every other day there appears to be a new social media video asking for recommendations for ‘comfy’ and ‘relatable’ creators.
Saturation of short-form content
With the rise of TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and reels taking over the algorithm on Instagram, there is short-form content everywhere you look online.
While this has scratched an itch that was needed and has many benefits, it has entirely overtaken long-form content – with many opting against creating that in favor of this new trend.
It’s led to creating an environment that feels more fleeting as it’s just a constant doom-scrolling situation.
The reason why short-form content has dominated this year is said to be because of two reasons – attention spans have dropped to just eight seconds on average and the rapid adoption of 5G has enabled faster video consumption.
The video commerce platform Firework found that 56% of videos created by businesses are now under two minutes, showing that even corporations are following the trend.
The format is found to not be so favorable for our attention spans or positive emotions either, as a study finds “switching between videos and within the video, however, led not to less boredom but more boredom; it also reduced satisfaction, reduced attention, and lowered meaning.”
Featured Image: AI-generated content via Ideogram
