Micro trends are becoming a rising issue with consumerism. Most of us have 

some platform of social media, either its snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. When we scroll through these platforms, we see commercials or ads, and sometimes we see an extensive amount of them. These ads could potentially lead to micro trends that spread across the U.S and even in smaller areas like schools. 

Micro trends are when many people have or attempt to match what’s happening in style or in their environment around them. The micro trends make people have the need to have the same water bottle, wear the same shirt, or have the same brand as everyone else.

A clear example of a micro trend was the Stanley water bottles, because they were a trend but not for long. In the year 2024 Stanley made approximately $800 million, and in 2025, they only made $7 million. Another example of micro trends was scrunchies,  most kids have them and some kids don’t even remember when they were a trend because it was so short. 

Micro-trends can have a wide impact on the company and its employees. 

Micro trends cause people who have seen and want to participate to overspend. This causes stress for many different companies such as Shein, Temu and forever 21. They fear of running out of their supply, which causes a high demand for the companies.

In order to mass-produce an item, the companies need a large number of workers to make the process faster, so that the companies can meet the demand for the item in stores and online. With this being said, this also causes workers to work for low wages and long hours. Companies also need to make sure they can keep up with the supply and demand. Because of needing workers to work long shifts they get little to no sleep because of this working environment. 

This can affect one’s mental health and cause them to be stressed or even cause depression. At the end of the micro trend, the business tends to slow down, and they don’t have such a high demand anymore, and they start to lay people off. This leaves the employees jobless and having trouble finding different jobs. 

According to Walt Pechacek, from Unfair Labor Practices, ”Unfair labor practices can have a significant impact on employees. This can result in reduced wages as much as $829–$1,382 monthly according to CNN reports, Job loss and reduced job security. Discrimination and retaliation can lead to a hostile work environment, impacting employees’ mental and physical health”. This quote speaks for most employees who have been laid off because of a similar situation, but also serves as a future reference to future employers as well. 

Many people are impacted by Micro trends, but most importantly, this will have an effect on the youth. 

The youth are the most common generation to be on a phone, is the youth specifically between 13-17 years of age. The youth are most affected because of social media platforms. Such as Gym Shark and evry jewels because you see so many ads about these different brands and they are being spread through different platforms. 

Like many other social media platforms, TikTok is known to be the most influential because there are different content creators posting and influencing others. Most social media apps provide ads and even games are now providing ads that later may lead to micro trends. They also influence them through watching other people. 

When humans watch each other they tend to pick up on whatever they are raving about at the moment. Going to a smaller school could also affect this. I interviewed Maddie Fisher about her impact and the impact of micro trends, and she responded with something similar. According to Maddie Fischer, “ Being in a small school, everyone has to be similar and dress and have the same style, so when trends come by we all get in on it”. 

Because of her experience of going to a smaller school, all of her high school friends decided to join in on the trend. Even people who weren’t her friends also felt the need to fit in, so they followed the same path. Micro trends are very impactful on the youth in many ways, but there are many factors that can affect how people react to them. 

With all the information I have talked about so far, the biggest one is the effects of micro trends on the environment and economy. 

Because micro trends are such a short amount of time, they tend to be used and thrown away so they can move onto the next trend. 

When a trend starts to become popular, people overbuy items such as keychains, stanleys,makeup and cheap useless items. When the consumers need space for the next big hit, they throw them away to make room. According to Grace Wang, from Hallmanac, ”claims that “39% of Gen Zers are directly influenced to purchase an item after seeing it on TikTok” from companies such as Shein, Forever 21, Zara, and other notorious fast fashion brands”.  

Since Micro trends exist and the feeling of needing to fit in with everyone around us, we need to jump from one train to the next. All of the items thrown away end up in landfills and are overpolluting. In 2023 there is an estimate of about an additional 92 tons of waste because of micro trends. With online shopping becoming the new way of shopping, smaller businesses are struggling to keep up with the ads and the supply and demand. According to Maddie Fischer, “When going on TikTok, I get many ads and videos for new trends and things to buy, and the same things with Instagram reels”. She claims that most of her ads for new hot fashion products come from social media. 

Later on in the interview I had a side conversation with her, and she pulled up her personal account on TikTok, and within 10 swipes, she made it through three different ads. These ads consisted of clothes, jewelry, shoes, water bottles, and other small trends that are flashy right now. When we see people we follow or people who inspire us wearing something we want to get, they sometimes actually review that item, trying to convince us to buy it. 

Most people do get intrigued and do check out the website, which leads to buying more than one item from them. About 76% of consumers claimed to have seen the item they bought on social media or have seen someone wearing it. The effect of micro trends can leave a big impact on the youth by forming their opinions and their personality based on what trends they are participating in. 

Micro trends impact everyone in a different way, whether it’s the store, the workers, the economy, the environment, or even the youth. Micro trends can be spread widely by social media or by being surrounded by a small crowd of people; they affect everyone.