We’ve all had so many great memories, laughs, and experiences on one little app. With the threat of a TikTok ban still looming over us, letâs reminisce through some of the best trends over the years TikTok has been alive and well.
- The wikiHow Trend
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To recap the best trends on TikTok, I have to start with an oldie but a goodie. During the wikiHow era on TikTok, and in the prime of the quarantine era, our humor as a generation began when we were all forced to stay home. Â
Many entertainment outlets were fading away, with production not being able to continue due to the spread of COVID-19. This caused us to create our own entertainment by asking random questions on wikiHow and following pictures that made no sense in the context of the topic. We were searching for a variety of topics, from things like âhow to stop the virusâ or âhow to make friends.âÂ
Did any of the pictures work or give us guidance to an answer to our question? I donât think so, but at least they were funny.
- The Dolphin Image and âSymphonyâ Trend
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Clean Bandit, ft. Zara Larsson released the catchy song âSymphonyâ on March 17, 2017, and it reappeared once again in 2024 to trend on TikTok. Users posted ironic phrases with the background of an animated, vivid picture of dolphins jumping out of the ocean. Â
The main point of this trend was to highlight the sarcastic and ironic statements people captioned pictures of innocent animated dolphins and saturated colors with. The song was stuck on my FYP â and then my Reels â for an entire month, but Iâm not complaining. Â
- The Zoom Trend
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Zoom might be kind of an old trend, but bear with me. We pretended that we were in cars and would quickly zoom off camera, having someone else pull us by the legs. The background song to this was âMICKEYâ by Lil Yachty, Offset, and Lil Baby, particularly the introduction at 0:07 – 0:12. I remember seeing the behind-the-scenes with others getting hurt, but, still, it was a funny trend, and amazing entertainment, even though it slightly damaging to some. Â
- OG TikTok Duets
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There was an era where everyone would duet another userâs TikTok and come up with either the same plot line or create a creative twist to it. My personal favorite was the Stranger Things plot, where people would dress up as the different characters from the popular TV show and have a scary background song to show they were being taken by the Demogorgon (the unnamed mythological monster from the Stranger Things universe). Â
However, this period was not limited to acting. Users used to lip-sync songs like the remix of âNeedsâ by Verzache and âWasabiâ by Little Mix, pretending they were in the same TikTok. This trend also emerged in 2020 when we were cooped up in our homes, and it allowed us to collaborate with others despite not being able to see them in person.Â
- The âGlamourâ Fashion Trend
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This trend alone made cheetah print back in style. The song âĐĐĐĐĐŁĐ â (Glamour) by uniqe, nkeeei, ARTEM SHILOVETS, and Wipo was on usersâ FYPs for quite some time. While this Russian song attracted a significant amount of attention in September 2024, the song originally gained traction starting in August 2024. Â
Very popular during the fall season, this trend and song has continued to live through the new year, with a total of 251.1K posts on TikTok. Users would post anything to do with cheetah print alongside the song; now, whenever I see cheetah print, my mind is reminded of this song, as the two have become synonymous. Â
- The [AS] Trend
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To conclude this list, I saved the best for last. My favorite trend, one with so many ingenious takes, is the Adult Swim or [AS] trend. Many people do not know the origin of this trend, but it comes from Cartoon Network, and it was used as a warning before late-night programming that the content wasnât suitable for children. Â
In 2021, there was a fun play on the ads that TV channels used to promote themselves in their ad breaks on Cartoon Network. Users highlighted their creativity by the different ways they would incorporate the Adult Swim logo into their videos. Â
There are so many more trends that were amazing, spanning back to 2019 that I canât list all of them. Â
I can try my best to persuade you and say that at least some songs wonât get âTikTokified,â and thereâs a bright side to the app possibly getting banned, but it will be a difficult reality without some of our greatest entertainment. So many slang words, online culture references, and dances originated from TikTok.
The potential loss of the app is difficult to comprehend because of its impact on internet culture, and I hope you got all your drafts posted or saved â just in case.
Farewell, TikTok. Or maybe not?
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