WHY FOLLOWING TRENDS IS HURTING HUMANITY?

In the initial stages of our civilization, humans primarily indulged in agriculture. But then people branched out to other activities like astrology, science, warfares, etc. Diversifying knowledge helped humanity and facilitated all the advancement you see now. It demanded a lot of out-of-the-box thinkers and risk seekers to explore new opportunities. But in my opinion, this is slowly eroding as the social and monetary incentives of following what is trending have increased. This may come back at us, and we already see some of the effects. This article will discuss how following trending things is plateauing humans’ ingenuity.

The NETFLIX problem

Netflix is a pioneer in streaming services and is believed to be the market maker for streaming movies and shows with a subscription fee. It is well regarded worldwide and enjoyed unprecedented growth during COVID-19. But in the recent reports for the first quarter of 2022, Netflix lost around 200,000 subscribers and nearly 700,000 Russians as they pulled out from Russia following the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This was a massive blow to their market value. The decline is justifiable as more companies like HBO MAX, Hulu, and Disney+ are entering the streaming market. But let’s breakdown another reason behind this:

Netflix, along with being a video production company, is also a data company. It has tons of data about viewing habits, which helps them improve their recommendations. This looks like a good use-case of data. But slowly, Netflix's data division started to dictate what kind of content would be made, curtailing the production division's artistic freedom. The data team's objective is to grab users' eyeballs as long as possible based on their watch history. The production team aims to offer a novel experience to the user; this leads to conflict, and the former won the game with its promise for short-term profits. That’s why most of the content on Netflix is relatable. The “Watch-Next” and “Surprise-me” buttons are designed based on the user's data, and to increase the viewing time, Netflix had to produce and acquire relatable content. You will not prefer Peaky Blinders after watching Crazy Stupid Love. Steve Jobs said that.

“Customers don't know what they want until we've shown them.”

So, in pursuit of keeping its customers hooked to their screen, it started featuring relatable genres and the same old genres. They sacrificed quality over quantity as quality stuff takes time; it was compromised. I hope that Netflix sometimes goes against the trend and lets loose the artistic freedom from the historical viewership data. There is no doubt that they disrupted the streaming industry and continue to provide great content. I hope that they let the steering wheel to artistic freedom more often.

The Shifting activist

After the demise of the Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the discussion about mental health stirred up on social media. Everyone was talking about it, and it is good that we are having these discussions. But in the following days, everyone moved on from the issue and started talking about how rich people use drugs. This is a shifting activist mindset as we tend to follow and conform to the hot or trending issues. But real change takes time a requires the lifelong devotion of motivated individuals. Just posting about pollution on Earth day is like planting a sapling and claiming that you solved global warming. These structural problems require the time and effort of many individuals over a long period of time. Greta Thunberg won’t motivate the CEO of ExxonMobil to shift to renewable overnight. Instead, it will inspire many individuals who will devote their lives to solving this issue. If every human picks up a problem and starts to build solutions religiously for that problem, no matter how small it is, we can have a better place. We don’t want everyone to care about everything and have an opinion; instead, we can dig deep into one issue and address seven billion matters together. 

No issues have been solved by debating on Twitter.

The Role of Social Media

Social media has shifted the paradigm of human interaction, and the rate of information flow is unprecedented. The hashtags on platforms show trending topics, and people follow, participate and contribute to the trend. Due to less friction and more engagement, more and more people follow the trends. Be it a popular TikTok and reels dance videos or ice bucket challenge. We are evolutionarily wired to follow what everyone is doing as it helps socialize and guarantees inclusivity. Our social incentives are biased toward trending things. It is a good thing as it helps to spread awareness, grows the creator economy, and connects people.

But like a double-edged sword, following trends is hurting us. Recently the Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead. Punjabi songs have glorified gun violence, and possessing flashy guns is trending in its culture. This has led to cases of accidental gun shootings and aggravated violence [video]. Also, if you see recent Bollywood songs and late-night talk shows, they all seem to follow what is in trend and always adopt tried and tested formats. The creators and producers take less risk to provide viewers novel experience. Platforms generally reward quantity over quality, so it is easier to create content that most people find relatable, and social media platforms are overflowing with trending content. Those who go after quality, platform algorithms hurt them monetarily by restricting their reach.

Seminal moments in history demanded individuals go against the beliefs of the general population, like Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed the heliocentric model of our solar system instead of the then-current trend of the geocentric model. Nikolas Tesla on using AC instead of DC current; promoted by Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs on full-screen displays on iPhone instead of keyboards, and Elon Musk popularized Electric Vehicles in a highly lobbied and competitive combustion vehicle environment. But now, most of us are searching for instant gratification from social media and have a reduced risk appetite to go against general beliefs. Humankind is betting on the risk-taking capabilities of many, and if some of the bet works out, our civilization will be placed on a different and better path. But the sample space of the population willing to take risks and carve their path is declining as most of us are hooked on what others are doing. Taking the “road less traveled by” demands the courage to go against trendy or general perceptions. The message is not to condemn trending videos or things, but to be aware of the biases we tend to fall into due to cognitive shortcuts, as our brain consumes the least amount of energy in following trending things. It may or may not be suitable for you, so do evaluate and build your own destiny.    

Here is a quote by Apple’s marketing team about radical thinkers and crazy ones who follow their path.      

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”