Online trends explode as people seek guidance on pandemic: sociologist
While bread making is harmless enough, one expert urges folks to ditch Twitter
Whether it's been stockpiling toilet paper, baking mountains of bread or learning the latest TikTok dance, COVID-19 has brought about a swath of viral trends in 2020 that may or may not make sense to onlookers.
Anton Atienza, an Edmonton Instagram lifestyle and fashion influencer and content creator, said he avoided most of the repeating trends but did get into the home workouts and establishing fitness trend. He wasn't alone, as stores across the city reported a shortage of fitness gear this spring.
Atienza said trends appeared to be exploding this year as people were stuck at home watching Netflix and scrolling through their social media feeds. A perfect recipe to allow a single Tik Tok to explode into thousands of people becoming amateur bakers.
“It was just, like, one of those Tik Tok influencers out in the U.S. that was just, like, ` We're at home,' and then it became a thing turning into, like, food bloggers (making bread) and then lifestyle bloggers doing it,” said Atienza about the summer trend of baking sourdough and banana bread.
Atienza said engagements on his posts rose sharply throughout the pandemic, showing that people were scrolling more and allowing social media to influence how they spend their free time.
` OLD RULES DON'T APPLY ANYMORE'
Dr. Tami Bereska, a sociologist at Macewan University, said whether people were engaging with Tik Tok dances or making sweets, they were most likely being influenced by rapid social change and media sources enhancing stories.
“People were floundering. They weren't sure what they should be doing, how they should be acting.
And so they would strike out in a peculiar way, like hoarding toilet paper and flour,” said Bereska.
She said the idea goes back to the Industrial Revolution as social life changed drastically. A sociologist named Emile Durkheim created the idea of “anomie,” a feeling that occurs when traditional norms or behavioural expectations decline.
“Basically, people are stunned and confused. The old rules don't apply anymore and so they're left floundering trying to figure out what behaviours are acceptable or unacceptable,” said Bereska.
She said anomie, on top of an overabundance of traditional and non-traditional media, could explain why people began to hoard toilet paper as COVID-19 came to North America or why people began to shop more online than they would have in person before the pandemic. She said it also explains why alcohol and substance abuse rose during the pandemic.
“So the pandemic hit, and people are experiencing this sense of normlessness and they see one news story about a store, somewhere in the middle of Manitoba, that ran out of toilet paper and pretty soon there's this panic. Everybody needs to buy toilet paper,” said Bereska.
As the pandemic dragged on from days to weeks to months, Bereska said people most likely turned to popular culture for ideas that would be entertaining and calming in a stressful time.
She said the fact that there are baking and cooking shows, coupled with sweet food being comforting in stressful times, would explain people's turn towards baking.
STAY AWAY FROM TWITTER: ATIENZA
Now that we're into the winter months of the year, Atienza said the latest trends Edmontonians have latched onto are hot chocolate bombs. He said both businesses and people are trying to create them and sell them.
To stay in the know, he suggests people stay on Instagram and Tik Tok, but recommended people to stay away from Twitter.
“I'd probably say stay away from Twitter. I feel like it's a dark hole right now with COVID and the politics,” said Atienza. “I'm sure you'll find a lot of trends, look at different hashtags.”
In Edmonton, he added, social media users can look up hashtags like #yegfood and #yegfashion.