Article by: Mary Vel Custodio

Visuals by: Charles Clark

Are there posts from social media pages that you encountered that you do not even follow but were recommended to you by the social media application that you are using?

Social media algorithm is grabbing our interest fastly. It is convenient because we can easily access our interests. With our interests as a root of the algorithm, it is quickly branching out to other related things that we may want to engage with. For example, if you are interested in fashion, then social media will eventually recommend fashion influencers and related sales. There are even times that it will randomly recommend things that went viral, whether are not in line with your interest but possibly catch your attention. Then with these recommendations, we jump into what is popular during that short period, also known as fads.

Fads go in and out in our feed and as youths, we want to be joining in different Tiktok challenges, ever-changing fads in fashion, imitating social media icons and influencers, buying popular items that social media celebrities use, and many more. However, with constantly riding on the fads which are continuously fading and changing, can we still see our actual identity? Or like the fads, being true to ourselves is also fading?

When we use social media, we feel free from the stressful reality. However, it seems like many are jailed in virtual reality. We are indulged in how the algorithm is feeding our interests. We see over-saturated contents wherein people almost do the same thing, to the point that we are being influenced to also imitate it. Then suddenly, another thing went viral, then we feel that we need to catch up to the fad. Being always into the fad may create disparities in our identity. We tend to have self-affirmation because we imitate someone and we are into the fads, but not because we improved our well-being.

Fads are fading and changing. We should not let our real selves fade along with the fading of the fads. We do not need to always conform to what we see online. Social media consumption is not bad, what is concerning, is when the internet is the one consuming us. 

We can look up to others to improve ourselves and make them inspiration to start a trend of self-empowerment. Let the fads fade, and let your empowered true self dominate.