Trend Fatigue in Lebanon: When Did Being Different Stop Being Cool?

I’m going to preface this article by saying that there’s nothing wrong with following trends. You find them in everything, including art, history, fashion, politics, and almost every decision you make (or you’re kind of forced to make) as a consumer. I myself participate in trends, especially when I buy a new shirt in a color that’s everywhere this season, and obviously, as someone writing for a platform like Beirut.com, I have to be on top of trends constantly.

Now that that’s out of the way, there’s been a surge in trend-following in Lebanon. Though the phenomenon isn’t new, there’s been a high saturation of trends currently circulating on social media. We’re collectively experiencing trend fatigue, especially when people just participate for the sake of participating, not because they actually like it. We are nothing if not prone to FOMO.

Why is everyone following the same trends?

The major turning point was that one penguin trend that everyone hopped on earlier this year, which was actually a very sad story that everyone turned into funny marketing. In case you already forgot what that was due to the high trend-turnover, it’s this:

And then there was this trend of people posting AI-generated images of little kids in front of their stores, restaurants, or products. Apart from the fact that AI-generating images of children is in itself problematic (in my opinion, because I’m sure someone with lots of free time will try arguing with me on this), the trend was so out of context. No one understood why certain brands were posting pictures of kids.

For context, back in July, a clothing brand owner’s child got hold of the company phone and accidentally uploaded a selfie accompanied by a nonsensical keyboard-mashed caption, and it went insanely viral. Here it is, for reference:

We’re losing the plot here

Everything we decide to do, purchase, interact with, eat, drink, or wear is driven by heavily curated visual identities. The keyword here is visual because it has nothing to do with quality or consumer preference, meaning that even the way we consume things is performative because of status anxiety and imitation.

Our problem is that we now treat visibility as value, and we can no longer distinguish the two. We see beloved restaurants completely rebranding just because it gets people talking and not because it’s necessary. We see hundreds of videos of people trying a sandwich because everyone was talking about it and they didn’t want to feel left out of the loop.

Businesses are actually profiting off this herd mentality and are no longer putting any effort into marketing campaigns or collaborations. They know that getting people talking can be just as valuable as having a good product, so the pressure to stay relevant often means jumping on whatever trend is circulating at the time. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if your product is mediocre at best, as long as people are talking about it. But when every brand is chasing a viral moment, trend fatigue becomes almost inevitable.

And I’m saying this as someone whose livelihood depends on me being extremely active on social media. Chronically online, if you will. Maybe that’s the thing about trend fatigue: when you’re constantly exposed to the same formats, aesthetics, and talking points, even genuinely good content starts blending into the background.

It’s tiring, and nothing stands out anymore because being on the internet feels a lot like white noise lately. Hidden gems are no longer hidden or gems, and a food review looks just like every other food review. Everything is a new concept daroure tjarboo, every restaurant serves the BEST shawarma, and every new coffee shop needs hundreds of aesthetic videos without any substance.

So, how exactly should we fight trend fatigue?

I’m not writing this to encourage anyone to start gatekeeping and stop consuming whatever is trending because it is honestly really fun to be involved. However, I miss when people posted things just because they wanted to, not because they knew it would perform well.

And I miss when discovering a new place felt like a personal recommendation rather than an obligation to try it. Even food bloggers started fully AI-generating captions about their experience at a restaurant instead of taking a few minutes to sit down and write something thoughtful, so it makes you wonder if anyone is ever producing content because they genuinely have something to say.

When captions are interchangeable, videos follow the same format, and every restaurant is described with the same two or three adjectives, where does the actual experience end and the content production begin?

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This doesn’t just apply to content because if you really think about it, it can also apply to how you carry yourself. We curate our lives the same way we curate our feeds. We dress for the photos, visit places because they look good online, and sometimes buy things because they fit the version of ourselves we’d like other people to see. It makes you wonder, given that a lot of Lebanese people are chasing trends, what are we trying to sell ourselves?

I’m sure this is the case in a lot of countries as well, so I’m not singling out Lebanese people…although I do think we’re susceptible to external influences in more ways than one.

The point is, I don’t think the solution is to stop following trends, delete our social media accounts, or suddenly become contrarians who reject anything because it’s popular. We need to learn how to filter out the white noise and make room for things that genuinely interest us.

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