"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends, fads and public opinion." - Jack Kerouac

Then why do people still follow trends that stay only for a limited amount of time?

Saying that most people spend a good amount of their days on social media would not be an exaggeration. Not in today's world. Social media has become an integral part of people's lives and daily routines. Some are addicted to it so much that the first thing they do after waking up is check their social media feeds.

Communication and marketing started with door-to-door services and phone calls. After 2000, e-mail became the go-to medium for selling information. Social media came to the forefront in 2010 and had been growing in popularity ever since. Though people were sceptical of social media platforms, the COVID - 19 lockdowns have brought everyone to the said platform. Today, people's attention spans are short, and the way they like to consume content has also changed. This is why content formats like Instagram and Snapchat Stories have become popular. They are short, engaging, and addictive in a way that people can spend hours scrolling through one Story after another.

The fear of missing out, more commonly referred to as “FOMO,” represents the feeling of envy one gets after feeling left out of social scenarios. The most dominant factor contributing to this decline is the numerous social media applications available today. Some tend to find scrolling through nonstop postings of events they could not attend from their peers to be deceiving and bothersome. While seeing content that has been put up by friends and family, the user's yearning to be a part of the 'popular crowd' wins out.

Now more than ever, we have been asking for a sense of privacy when social media does everything to prevent it. The popular group and the trends will always be there; we need to think of what we can do to help our mental well-being. Why do you need to belong when you are born to stand out? Don't follow; Be the leader and take control of what you do. Social media without any users is just a tool and it is our willpower that can stop us from being consumed by the fast-growing digital world.