We were never so in love with the Internet than in 2014. No wonder then that many of us crossed the fine line between sharing and spamming. While there is no set monitoring of the amount and quality of photos, videos and blogs we share there were some social media trends that left us annoyed, irritated and a little frustrated. Here is a list of trends that we hope stays back in 2014.
10 Books that changed my life: This was a trend that took Facebookers for a ride. It made them think of all the books they’ve read and then select 10 out of the lot that changed their lives forever. While we are all for reading, some people went a little overboard and took this as an excuse to boast of their intellectual status. Seriously, stop!
Year in pictures or Look Back: The end of 2014 had Facebook pull out all of your popular posts and pictures, and compile it into an album. While it was fun initially, it got a little annoying to see our newsfeed filled with everyone’s cherished moments.
ALS ice bucket challenge: The ALS ice Bucket Challenge was passed down from celebrities to common people, who all took it up and posted videos on social media. While we applaud the ones who did it for charity what we didn’t like were the ones who did it to garner social media hits. The challenge also gave rise to a whole bunch of people who started talking about conserving water and horrible water wastage in third world countries. We sure are glad it’s over.
Hashtags: The hashtag war continued in 2014 and the list just became bigger and annoying. Pictures and statuses not only saw common hashtags like #Friends #Fun and #Party but crazy, ‘makes-no-sense’ hashtags like #sohappytobewithher #Sheistheloveof mylife #Tagsforlikes #Intaclick #Instalover #weareonourhoneymoon and multiple others that went on and on… #Urrgggg #Stop #It #Please!
Quizzes: Social media was flooded with quizzes which would tell you what your character is or whatever you are in the right career or when would you die and how. Movie character quizzes became popular and suddenly everybody wanted to know if they were Ravan from Mahabharatha, Rachel from Friends or Harry from Harry Potter. The quizzing zone just got way too crazy and enough to last us for a lifetime.
#100 Days of Happiness: The #100 days of happiness was a dream for #selfie clickers. Be it on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or even via mail the trend was simple. Post one picture a day of a thing that made you happy. By the end of the 7th day people got bored and by the 15th everything looked like such a force fit that we wanted to report it as spam.
Breaking the Internet: #Breakingtheinternet became an annoying trend where everyone wanted to claim a part of the web. So we saw the Oscar selfie that resulted in a Twitter crash followed by Aamir Khan’s nude picture on the PK poster that was the talk of the town and then Kim Kardashian’s cover for PAPER magazine that had her derriere in focus. Publicity stunts and marketing gimmicks, we just kind of got bored of it all. #Breakyourcamerainstead.
Selfie Trend: The list can’t be complete without #selfies. We are so over and done with #selfies especially the #nomakeupselfie, #hairfie, #nailfie, #groupie, #belfie, and #woke-up-like-this-selfie that flooded our news feeds. Some even managed to go viral like the #selfiewithModi that became the talk of town and bored us all.
Thank you videos: The trend of making personalised videos to thank your friends and family started off as a unique way to express gratitude but turned into one of those annoying things you just want to skip. Just pick up that phone and thank the person instead.
Movie Bashing Hashtags: 2014 also saw a large bunch of online users turn into self proclaimed critics and bashing almost all movies. Everyone took to social networking sites to express if they liked or disliked a movie, in fact many a times it generated heated debates and gave rise to hashtags too like the #GundayHumiliatedHistoryOfBangladesh, #BoycottPK and #BoycottHaider.
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