Takeaway: You’ve heard of doomscrolling. Let's replace it with hopescrolling. This trend offers audiences a dose of positivity and uplifting stories to improve their scrolling experience.
10. Your parents' '80s dance moves
Young millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha TikTokers asked their parents to recreate dance moves from the 1980s and 1990s. The result? Club classics, retro dance moves, and family bonding. The trend was inspired by Dennis Appel (@dadsgotmoves) who danced like his dad on TikTok, with the video collecting over 48 million views.
Parents doing their '80s dance moves - 2024 social media memeImage source
Actress and businesswoman Jennifer Garner posted her take, and given her family-oriented food brand Once Upon a Farm, this trend was the perfect fit for her. Actress Courtney Cox also hopped on the trend, doing a perfect throwback to her role in the "Dancing In The Dark" music video by Bruce Springsteen.
Takeaway: Lots of social media content is about dividing the generations, but this one united us. By crossing generational lines, it brought people together and connected people — something we love to see on social media.
They say if you love something, let it go. While these trends all charmed us, they also revealed something flawed about the nature of trends. Some have reached peak saturation. Some have hit the end of their lifecycle. Some remind us of the risks of jumping on the latest viral bandwagon.
We’re letting go of these trends in 2025, but we’ll carry the lessons they taught us forever.
1. Brat
Brat green. Brat summer. Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. 2024 is brat.
When British singer Charli XCX released her album "Brat," it took on a life of its own. The album’s marketing was genius, and it infiltrated culture with a now iconic green hue and unapologetic lyrics that won the internet.
brat - 2024 social media memeImage source
This trend took the world by storm for a number of reasons. Aesthetically, it was the anti-clean girl aesthetic. It was honest, authentic, care-free, rough around the edges. It inspired an attitude that can only be defined as... brat.
