In today’s age, social media hypes people up to follow trends. When it looks and sounds fun to be a part of something that everyone else is doing, people are easily influenced; whether it is toys, fashion, a word, a dance, or food, trends are on our page waiting for us to join in. 

Students at Skyline and Cañada College stated their thoughts and opinions about social media after seeing these trends take over their feeds, before and during 2025.

Zayna Nasrah, a Skyline student, said the rise of the Dubai chocolate trend on social media was being seen everywhere.

“It blew up massively on TikTok which created a huge demand increase for the production of Dubai chocolate,” Nasrah said. “It was being sold in many places like Safeway and small local businesses as well. It was being sold as chocolate bars and strawberry Dubai chocolate cups.” 

Nasrah said that although she doesn’t follow trends often, she was involved in the Dubai chocolate trend, purchasing her own share of goods. 

“I would say I often follow some trends but not always,” Nasrah said. “I have definitely taken part in the Dubai chocolate trend, purchasing chocolates, and Dubai chocolate brownies from Crumbl.”

Nasrah talked about how some challenges trending in social media are fun and positive.

“The Ice Bucket Challenge… consisted of nominating your friends to participate in the challenge of having an ice bucket poured over your head,” Nasrah said. “I participated in the trend and many others that I know participated as well. It raised awareness [of] ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis] and raised over $115 million for the cause!”

Nasrah said that, though she thinks students follow the trends as catchy or fun — especially if people close to them are also participating in the same thing — sometimes things can get out of hand, and become more annoying than fun.

“I think the six-seven trend is kind of pointless and annoying, I can see why people may think it is funny but it has been really overused lately,” Nasrah said.

Vannessa Rivas, a Cañada student, said she once joined a trend because it was seen as fashionable, but unlike the one she joined in on, recent trends appear on social media out of the blue without reason. One example, Rivas said, was the Labubus trend; to her, it didn’t make sense as to why they trended at all.

“When I first saw the trend of Labubus I was immediately annoyed because they came out of nowhere and they were not fashionable in any way,” Rivas said.

Rivas said that for a lot of these trends, the only reason people are compelled to follow along with the trending drift is because they are popular.

“These trends are seen as ‘cool’ and become so popular,” Rivas said. “[The reason trends trend is because] people want to become popular and gain the approval of the social media world and the people around them to consider them ‘cool’ too.”

Alexander A. Hernandez, Cañada student, said that though he hasn’t been able to join in on the 2025 trends due to being busy in his daily life. He said that current trends, including the new ones from this year, are very different from before.

“… I’ve noticed an overemphasis on political issues between government and people, regarding protections and rights,” Hernandez said. 

Hernandez said that he noticed that, even though people want to join in and genuinely enjoy trends, they feel hesitant because of the misinformation and disinformation that comes with it.

“Personally, I’d keep the trend of open, honest, and expressive communication because it fosters healthy and better relationships,” Hernandez said.

Sasha Sosinski, Skyline sophomore, said that although she did not participate in any trends, she was concerned about seeing skincare and body image content aimed at younger generations. 

“… it’s been targeted to younger groups and youth as a need to turn to a large basis of makeup, retinol, and skin care to ‘preserve their youth’ based on the rise of social media’s enforcement of body image, and thus, insecurity of our own body image,” Sosinski said. 

Sosinski said that although social media trends have been here for a long time, people want to do it because maybe they want to fit in with the rest of the crowd; things appearing on social media are now coming outside of our screens and coming into real life. 

“Trends are almost always done as a way of fitting in, sure some may like them as well, a lot maybe, but trends are a way of fitting in to not stand out and try to find a connection or bond with others,” Sosinski said.