Fads that Died Out in 2018

1: Fortnite Dancing

Fortnite, a popular video game among lower, middle, and upper school students at Cape Henry, began gaining clout at the beginning of 2018, carrying on through the year. Although the hype around the game has died down a bit, people still loyally play Fortnite and the victory dances of the virtual characters have carried over to the real world. Students worldwide began mimicking the characters and over-exaggerating the victory dances the character performed after someone had one. The goofy moves could be seen all throughout 2018 in all of the classrooms of Cape Henry. The dances carried on through the spring of 2018 to the very end of the year, thus earning its spot at #1 fad that died out in 2018. The dancing still continues, but not to the extent that the fad initially boomed.

2: Tide Pods

Tide pods were one of the more dangerous fads that – thankfully – died out in 2018. People all over were purchasing the brand of laundry detergent to eat, drink, or simply create into a viral joke on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The tide pod challenge began at the very beginning of 2018, starting the year with a bang, which is why this fad earns the second spot on the list. Although the meme was funny to laugh about, there were 39 reported cases of intentional ingestion of the chemically dangerous detergent. Rachael Sifen, Class of ’20, has an older brother who “nearly ate a whole tide pod at a family dinner” and her dad had to “force him to spit it out.” This fad exemplifies how far people would go for a joke in 2018; however, most people, save the 39 cases, only humored the subject of eating Tide pods, and the joke spread like a wildfire across social media apps as well as real life.

3: T-Posing

The trend of t-posing can be traced back to the default setting of 3D models in video games and other online websites. T-posing gradually transformed from memes on social media in 2016 to a signal of dominance in 2018. T-posing jokingly became a way to express oneself as the dominant person in a situation. It can also be interpreted as a comedic response to certain situations at random times. In 2018, T-posing became a prominent trend. As with Fortnite dancing, many students could be seen t-posing on a daily basis, on the sports fields, hallways, and classrooms, but the fad came and went after only a season.

4: Fidget Spinners

Fidget spinners have been an obvious fad since 2016, but it seems they ultimately died out once and for all in 2018. The spinners, whose original goal was to occupy those who needed to be doing something to focus on the task at hand – in a student’s case, their schoolwork and listening to teachers – quickly became something different right away. The fidget spinners became a running joke, an addiction across all teenagers, and the teens became obsessed with doing tricks with them. There was never a room without someone aimlessly spinning one in their hand. During the die out of the fad, memes began surfacing about the fidget spinners, creating humor surrounding the spinners which made them funnier than ever before. At the beginning of 2018, there were still remnants of fidget spinners, but they completely died out after years in the spotlight of comedy.

5: Yodeling Boy

The young boy dressed up in southern cowboy attire yodeling in Walmart is a video that has reached the eyes of nearly every teen with the internet. The video blew up across all social media platforms, gaining millions of views faster than the snap of a finger. The yodeling boy, whose parents identified him on Twitter to be Mason Ramey, became an overnight phenomenon, grabbing the attention of jokers worldwide. Remixes were made of his yodels, memes created of him, and hilarious videos constructed, all on the foundations of this yodeling boy in Walmart. Mason’s twitter, controlled by him and his parents, became a joke in itself and caught the attention of all people; there was not a soul who was not talking about him during the time of his boom. However, Mason quickly died out, making an appearance at Coachella which yielded him a small revival, but ultimately, Mason’s fame was a short-lived fad, joining the ranks in top 10 fads that died in 2018.

6: In My Feelings Challenge

Born from the song “In My Feelings” by Drake, released in his album Scorpion in 2018, the In my Feelings Challenge involves a participant walking alongside their car as the popular song plays over their radio or in the background. Then the participant dances to the beat and lyrics of the song as the car continues to roll alongside them. This trend went viral after Instagram comedian TheShiggyShow posted a video of him performing the dance on his profile. Since then, people have added their own renditions to the song, their own moves, but the idea is mostly the same. This trend has led to cars rolling away from their owners, cars being stolen, people tripping over themselves or seemingly nothing, quite a few deaths from oncoming, unsuspecting cars, and of course, millions of videos nationwide. 

7: Bottle Flipping

One guy at a high school talent show in North Carolina is all it seems to take to create a trend. When Michael Senatore, a student in Charlotte, walked onto the stage to perform his act, nobody would have believed how big of a trend he would start. Nonetheless, the second his bottle went into motion, so did the trend, and it resulted in a cascade of bottles displaying, but previously conceived as breaking, the laws of motion and gravity. What the performer, or magician as some believe, must do is take the top end of the bottle, where the cap is, and use their wrist and arm to force the bottle to do a full flip in the air, at least one rotation, and then have the bottle land right-side-up. It may seem simple, but it is difficult to account for the water movement, the momentum, the height, and many other environmental factors that could knock the small water container over. Like most trends, flinging bottles became old quickly and died out in early 2018. Attempts were made to revive this tossing phenomenon, like attempting to flip multiple at a time, attempting to have two bottles land on top of each other, and trying to land the bottle on its cap, but it wasn’t enough to keep it alive.

8: Musical.ly

The app known as Musical.ly popped up in 2015 and gained fame in 2016 as an alternative to another app called Vine. Vine consisted of videos and images of people doing whacky and random acts in front of the camera, usually in a skit format, and became popular during the early 2010s. After its deletion, Musical.ly served as an alternative for people to make fools of themselves in short videos. The main idea behind this app was for the users to video themselves lip-syncing to songs and dancing but was not limited to just those core ideas or the core ideas of vine either. After interest began declining, the app was shut down and deleted. After a few weeks of cyber-mourning for yet another app deleted from public access, a new, more powerful force took the internet unexpectedly. Tik Tok, the new trend, is now spearheading and thriving where neither Musical.ly nor Vine could.

9: Dele Alli challenge

Bamidele Jermaine Alli, better known as Dele Alli, is a soccer player who’s appeared in the World Cup, playing for England’s national team. On his Instagram, Dele posted an image of himself holding his hand over his eye in an odd fashion. He had challenged his followers to attempt the “Dele Alli Challenge” and to try to copy his move. It was difficult to understand what was going on in the photo, but a few were able to figure out his trick. It consisted of taking your pointer finger and thumb and touching them together like you’re holding a pea in your hand. Then you fold your other three fingers over the palm of your hand like you’re making a finger gun, and then point your wrist towards the sky. It’s pretty much an over-glorified owl eyes trick, but it wasn’t long until people started to figure out his “trick.” It later lost interest and other challenges from Dele were suggested, but none took off like the first one.

10: All-Star by Smashmouth and its Revival

One word: Shrek. When the movie released in 2001, it flew to the top of the charts due to not only its protagonist’s appealability to children but also the soundtrack that it dragged into its final production. Popular songs like “Hallelujah” and “I’m A Believer” made appearances later in the movie, and the band Smash Mouth contributed two of their songs to production as well. Their song “All Star” would not only add to the film as a whole but would also top the charts quickly after the movie’s release. A few years would pass until its reemergence into relevance. The reason or origin of how and why the song became relevant again is currently unknown – one of life’s most grueling mysteries – but back it came and with more support and plays than previously seen before. Of course, not every radio would willingly play a 2001 song on their playlists, but a few did, and they failed to realize the reality of what the song quickly became: a joke. Numerous replays, remixes, and jokes were made for and about the song, until it reached a point where “All Star” finally burned out for the last time. It’s not uncommon for songs that are overplayed and essentially deep fried in jokes to die out quickly, so All Star’s fate was sealed the moment it re-emerged and became a joke.