#NotTrendingAnymore

Not Everything That Is Viral On The Internet Is Fun And Entertaining, Or Is It?

Vidhi Batra, AIS Noida, XI H

From clothes to YouTube videos, from the way we to talk to the way we walk, trends have woven into our lives such that they have become a lifestyle. So much so that all that matters to us today, is keeping up with an upcoming trend, no matter how vain it may be.
So, in this era where most of us seem to be shedding our hair (and some, common sense) keeping up with the trends which changes faster than seasons we bring you a few of the latest trends that weren’t really win-win for all of us.

Don’t forget about me
When Justin Bieber rose to fame after his debut on YouTube, needless to say that others also saw this as an opportunity. From Pammi aunty ki beti to Gupta uncle ka bhanja, everyone shared their ‘talent’ with the world on the easily available platform. While some turned into Shraddha Sharma, others were Dhinchak Pooja. As much as we enjoy listening to soulful music, it is also hard to forget the cringe worthy voices trying to call upon the apocalypse a little too early. No wonder, Simple Minds had to write an entire song about not forgetting people.
Tell me a lie
Fun fact: fake news was named 2017’s word of the year. It’s pretty much given how fake news has become more than just another #TrendingNow. With the coming of social media, whatever information we get can’t be traced back to credible sources. What better example to all those “Jan gana mana has been declared as the Best National Anthem by UN” messages that bua ji and mama ji keep forwarding on the family WhatsApp groups. One Direction might want to hear some lies, but the rest of us certainly don’t.

What about us?
First, it was Pokemon Go, then Counter Strike and now PUBG. You might as well start a cult while you’re at it. Every time a group of people decide to get together, there will be at least two or more ‘gamers’ glued to their phone screens, totally engrossed, screaming at it and giving directions to virtual strangers to jump down a plane or kill another gang or whatever. We do understand that you’re angry about things, but what happened to talking to real people? Just because we’re peace loving human beings, do we not deserve any attention? Or just like P!nk had put it, ‘What about us?’
Let it go... no, really!
Filters. We all have used them, but some of us are guilty of overusing them. Snapchat and Instagram have given us unlimited options through which we can put on a mask, change our voices and annoy people (deliberately or not). Every time we look at stories, there’s at least one time when we say ‘Ugh, not again!’ to ourselves and skip. Quoting James Bay, ‘C’mon let it go…’ (and repeat it for hundred or more times).

Live your life
Life would be better if our phones didn’t *ting* every other second to the notification ‘Ms Wanna Be started a live video. Watch it before it ends!’ And if you happen to open the app while trying to get rid of the notification, you will find Neha ki mausi ke padosi ki beti dancing on the latest Bollywood number. It’s actually high time people stop going live on social media only to have others ask them what class they’re in or why aren’t their parents home yet. So, feel free to ‘Live your Life’, just don’t go about throwing it in people’s faces.

Trends pop up every now and then - it is inevitable. Some of them disappear in a flash, while others last a little longer. They go viral in a minute and get outdated just as fast. Yes, word travels fast, but in our time, trends travel even faster.

When titans collide!

Rivalries Can Be Good Or Bad. Read On About The Greatest Rivalries Of All Times!

Ananya K Dash & Sreeram Kandikuppa, AIS Gur 43, XI

ManU V/S Barca. It’s the finals and you’re sitting, biting your nails with your cousins watching the thing that you have been waiting for the entire week. That’s when your cousin comes in with total disregard for the match and starts to blabber about how Manchester is going to take Barcelona down easily. That is exactly the moment when you know that the person in front of you is not your cousin, but your mortal enemy. And that my friend is the dawn of another rivalry. Speaking of which, some rivalries have always been there. Some so intense that they have been passed down from forefathers through generations and some so recent that it’s impossible not to comprehend how it became such a big deal all of a sudden in no time. Here are some of the examples of such rivalries. Pick your sides already!

PS4 vs Xbox
Any conversation involving consoles is incomplete without inclusion of the famous Xbox v/s PS4 banter. Of course, there is Nintendo but isn’t it just a hipster thing? While the consoles battle it out in terms of variety of games, performance, specs etc., the PC master race smirks and says, ‘Rookies!’

Goku vs Vegeta
Kamehameha!!!! Is there anyone who hasn’t gone through his childhood without the Dragon Ball Z phase? In fact some of us are still in that phase. Although the series was an instant hit, August 3, 2005 was nothing less than a revolution. It brought to life the greatest rivalries of all times creating a huge divide within the fans on who is better? Goku or Vegeta. I’m just ‘saiyan’, both are equally awesome.

PUBG vs Fortnite
The two frontrunners of the hype train of battle royal genre made on the same engine has divided fans for a year. Fans constantly argue about which game provides a better experience, which has a better map and whose gameplay is superior. But in the end it’s all about having a chicken dinner after your victory royale, isn’t it?

Adidas vs Puma
It’s not easy to fill someone’s shoes, and even more so when it’s the two rival companies Adidas and Puma. From the same company to opposite aglets, the rivalry between them was so intense that their respective factories built in the same Bavarian village of Herzoneaurch polarised the community with local people picking sides by picking shoes. It’s almost as if they had ‘just do it’ attitude!

Lamborghini vs Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari would have never thought that they would have to pay such a big price for humiliating a lowly tractor manufacturer company. The small feud resulted in the birth of the giant bull - Lamborghini. Ever since then, the stallion and the bull are constantly racing to be called the speed demon.

Rivalries come and go. Sometimes they motivate people to outperform the other and be the ‘numero uno’, or they turn bitter, leaving dents on either side. And sometimes, they pave way for friendships. But they are always a treat to the spectator as long as they last. It’s all about what you learn from it.