What's trending? The search for authentic expression

I've never been one to chase a trend. Sure, I can get swept up in a craze or a fad from time to time, but, for the most part, I tend to march to the beat of my own drum (as they say).

Recently, I started posting to my TikTok account daily to see if it will grow my follower count. I took inspiration from another author in the Rowan Prose family who grew their follower count to 1,000 by posting every day for one month. It seemed like a decent blueprint for success, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Don't mind this photo of me in the Wausau Community Theater's production of A Christmas Carol from 2008.

I started this on July 19 and have posted every day since that time. So far, my follower count has grown, but not by much. Granted, there are still 20 days left, but the slow start has not been encouraging.

I spoke with a relative at a family function last weekend regarding TikTok and other social media platforms. Her advice to gain prominence was to follow the trends and make them your own. I smiled and thanked her for the advice, but a part of me felt uneasy.

You see, I get how the trends work. I've seen plenty of them. One minute, it's a Tupac dance challenge. The next it's a reel about how "you seem happier." Other times, it's a song choice that's trending, so you use that as your background music and build a reel around it.

It seems simple enough, but something within me rejects this idea. Allow me to explain it and express a little vulnerability. When I was growing up, I saw all the ways kids and classmates tried to stand out. They would gravitate toward whatever was popular at the time. It came in the form of fashion choices (I still don't get why everyone liked JNCO jeans, but to each their own), catchy phrases (Forrest Gump and Ace Ventura were always quoted during my school years) or hair styles (frost tips anyone?).

While these choices brought validation and popularity, I tended to do my own thing instead. When everyone was talking about their "normal" hobbies in middle school, I gushed about still loving dinosaurs and writing stories about them. When high school rolled around, designer clothes were popular, yet my wardrobe was heavy on sports jerseys because I liked how they looked. When my classmates copied celebrity hairstyles, I opted to keep mine brown.

For the record, I'm not saying following trends or doing what's popular is wrong. But I find myself doing things I like doing regardless of how it's viewed from a mainstream lens. That's not to say I don't do something trendy from time to time. Every so often, a few of them speak to me. But I don't accept them just because of their prominence.

The video behind this photo wasn't trendy. I just thought it would be a unique idea.

I'm providing this small sliver of context because it ties back to TikTok and other social media trends. From what I've gathered, if I really want to expand my follower base, I should focus heavily on the trends. So this past week, I looked at some of those trends and, yeah, no, it's not for me.

In today's social media world, more and more people look for a trend and then jump on it as fast as possible to maximize the chances of their content getting great engagement or potentially going viral. Think of the people who jumped on the Bernie Sanders' mitten meme in 2021. Great engagement, right? Totally. Think of the people who created content or commentary around the Coldplay Jumbotron scandal. It guaranteed clicks.

When something is popular on social media, there are plenty of people churning out content around it. And then more people jump on the bandwagon until all you see is a flood of different creators creating content about the same thing. To me, it all blurs together and stifles individual creativity.

Yes, many creators find a way to make a trend their own with a creative approach, but they are still using a trend as a springboard rather than creating something because they want to. If it wasn't trending or trendy, would you still see that piece of content?

I haven't followed the TikTok trends, aside from a lone post on the "you seem happier" one just to try it out. What I like doing is thinking about creative concepts and sharing them with a larger audience. My aim isn't to go viral, but rather to find a good balance between entertainment and promoting my novel. Because I want to be me and not everyone else chasing a trend because it's popular.

Again, trends aren't bad or wrong. Things trend for a reason. But something feels lost in the shuffle. There are plenty of people doing their own creative thing on social media, yet their impressions barely register, while trendy creators add to the trend and reap the engagement rewards. Look at how many YouTube thumbnails and cover images closely resemble those by Mr. Beast. It works, but then almost every popular video has a thumbnail that looks like a carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy.

It seems like TikTok and other social media platforms encourage you to stand out by blending in and being like everyone else with a popular presence. I wish these platforms valued creators who choose to be their authentic selves, sharing content that speaks to their soul rather than to the algorithm. We seem to lose a sense of genuine expression when our attention fixates on what's popular rather than what's unique.

I'm not saying there aren't creators who display their authentic selves and have great engagement. I've seen it, but generally speaking, following trends and catering content around them appears to be the recipe for gaining social media credibility.

If that's what works for those creators, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just not me. Sure, I would love to see one of my reels take off, but I'm not posting with that as my motivation. I post to share a part of my energy with a larger audience. If they love it, awesome. If they don't, there's only one question I need to answer: Do I love it? That's what guides me. I wish that mindset had mainstream appeal.