The 2010s has been one of the most eventful decades for many people. Besides being very memorable, the 2010s is also filled with dozens of fads and trends that have become quite popular in many countries around the world. Trends aren’t only seen in fashion in the 2010s, as they are also prominent in various industries and platforms, although the industry with the most trends and fads is social media.
While there are trends that are beautiful and amazing for many people, there are also some that are so crazy that you wouldn’t even believe they became very popular. To learn more about these peculiar trends, here is a list of some of the crazy fads of the 2010s.
Silly Bandz
In the world of fashion, there have been numerous fads that have come out of the 2010s, but one of the craziest is probably the Silly Bandz, which are rubber bands that have weird and peculiar shapes and can be worn on the wrists. The Silly Bandz became quite popular in the early 2010s, and their popularity is mainly attributed to the endorsements of many celebrities, including the Kardashian family.
What’s great about Silly Bandz is that they are quite affordable, so kids and adults will be able to collect and wear as many of these crazy rubber bands as they can. These colorful rubber bands come in different colors and shapes, including stars, peace signs, trees, and animals. When the monotone or grayscale fashion trend became popular in the late 2010s, Silly Bandz went out of style since it is too colorful to incorporate in the trendy black, white, and gray outfits.
Shutter Shades
Another crazy fashion trend from the 2010s is the shutter shades, which don’t look like the conventional pair of sunglasses since it doesn’t actually have glass. Instead of glass, the shades have “shutters” or horizontal pieces of plastic connected to the plastic frame of the accessory.
What’s weird about shutter shades is that they don’t really serve a purpose other than to have an accessory on your eyes. Because of how relatively useless shutter shades are, they didn’t really last long in terms of popularity, and they eventually faded out by the mid-2010s. However, when shutter shades were trendy in the early 2010s, there were many celebrities that have worn them, including rapper Kanye West, who arguably made the shades popular.
The Harlem Shake
One of the craziest dance trends that took the world by storm is The Harlem Shake, which does not actually have a particular dance move since the rules of the trend are to move your body in whatever way you want while the music is playing. The trend became so famous that even celebrities in the 2010s started doing it. The Harlem Shake dance craze has the “Harlem Shake” song by Bauuer playing in the background of every dancing video.
In the dance trend, one person will first need to dance in a room full of people that are too busy doing something (like studying, eating, or working) in a recorded video. Then, when the phrase “do the Harlem Shake” is mentioned in the song, the video will then cut to a section where all the people in the room will dance or do some crazy stunt like wearing a weird costume or performing acrobatic moves.
Planking
Speaking of crazy stunts, there is one particular trend that has become so dangerous for many people that it caused accidents. This trend is called planking, and the rule of the trend is that you have to lie flat on a surface. However, the surface you will be lying on is sometimes not just on the floor but in between chairs, between kitchen tables, and in some of the craziest and most dangerous places you can think of.
Many people consider planking a dumb trend, but even though it has received plenty of criticism, the trend is still quite popular, especially for the younger generations that are posting their planking photos or videos on social media. Luckily, planking didn’t stay trendy for too long, and the dangerous trend eventually fizzled out after one or two years.
Cinnamon Challenge
Besides planking, the “cinnamon challenge” is another trendy video challenge that a lot of people consider “dumb” during the 2010s. In the said challenge, a person will record himself or herself eating a spoonful of cinnamon. The problem with eating that much cinnamon is that you will most likely cough up plenty of it, and its taste will probably overwhelm your taste buds.
In addition to being called “dumb,” the cinnamon challenge is also deemed dangerous by many health experts, who said that eating a lot of cinnamon in one go can cause choking. However, much like planking, the dangers of the cinnamon challenge didn’t stop people from trying it, but fortunately, the challenge died out by the mid-2010s.
Flappy Bird
One of the most well-known video games in the 2010s is Flappy Bird, a mobile game that was developed by Vietnamese programmer Dong Nguyen and released on May 24, 2013. This platforming game has very simple mechanics, and the goal is to control the “flappy bird” character and go through as many obstacles as you can before the character falls or gets hit by an obstacle.
But, the catch of controlling the character is that it constantly falls down quickly, so you will need to touch the screen multiple times for it to stay afloat or fly. When it was released in 2013, Flappy Bird didn’t really have many players, but by January 2014, it unexpectedly became a very popular game for iOS and Android devices.
By the end of the said month, Flappy Bird became the most downloaded free game for smartphones. Unfortunately, in February of the same year, the creator of Flappy Bird took it down after feeling guilty about its overuse and addictive nature. But, the game eventually came back under the name “Flappy Birds Family” in August 2014.
These are some of the craziest fads of the 2010s. Thankfully, some of the silly and dangerous fads that have come out of the said decade have already faded out from the spotlight, although they may eventually be replaced by another set of crazy trends in the near future.