The internet moves fast and one day, everyone’s talking about something, posting about it nonstop—then just as quickly, it disappears. Some trends last a few weeks, while others burn out in days, but either way, people lose interest in these fads & move on. Let’s look at fourteen internet trends that vanished as quickly as they arrived. Each one had a moment where it seemed like it was here to stay, then suddenly, it wasn’t.
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Bitstrips Comics on Facebook
In 2013, Bitstrips exploded when people began posting little cartoon versions of themselves in comic-style scenes. The app let users customize their avatars to look like them & create jokes or status updates in comic panels—it took over Facebook for a short time. However, people got bored with it fast and the humor didn’t hold up for long, so after a few weeks, Bitstrips faded from everyone’s feed. Most users deleted the app entirely.
The “Hadouken” Photo Trend
Back in 2013, there was a short-lived moment where people turned their Instagram feeds into action scenes as part of the Hadouken photo trend. One person would strike a pose like they were launching a power blast and everyone else would fling themselves back like they’d just been hit—it was quite goofy. Of course, the internet moves on fast and once everyone had seen a few, it lost its appeal & most people barely remember it even happened.
Harlem Shake Videos
In the same year, the Harlem Shake hit YouTube hard and the videos started the same way—one person dancing alone while others around them acted normal, then the beat dropped, & the screen cut to chaos. Everyone was dancing in costumes or doing weird moves, with users uploading thousands of versions within a few weeks. But after a few months, interest dropped because the format had been used so many times that it stopped being funny. People soon moved on to other dance trends.
“NekNominate” Drinking Challenges
In 2014, a drinking trend called “NekNominate” began going viral, which involved people filming themselves chugging alcohol, usually a beer or a mixed drink, then challenging someone else to beat it. The content of the videos escalated quickly and people began dangerous stunts or adding gross ingredients like eggs or hot sauce. However, health officials criticized the trend after reports of injuries & even a few deaths, which is why the challenge disappeared after about a month.
Viddy
Viddy launched in 2011 and became popular in 2012 as a platform that allowed people to share short, filtered videos—it was just like Instagram, but for video only. Clips were limited to 15 seconds and users could add music or effects, with celebrities like Snoop Dogg investing in it. It briefly had millions of downloads, but the app didn’t last because Instagram added video later that year & Vine entered the scene, too. Viddy just couldn’t compete, so by 2014, the company shut it down completely because users had moved to other platforms.
Cone-ing
Cone-ing was a prank trend in 2011 when people ordered a soft-serve ice cream cone at a drive-thru and grabbed it with the ice cream instead of the cone. As you might expect, the fast-food workers serving them were quite surprised and the prank was meant to be weird more than funny. After a few viral clips, everyone tried it, although it didn’t take long for people to get annoyed by it & for workers to start pushing back.
“#FollowMeTo” Travel Photos
The #FollowMeTo trend started in 2013 when a Russian couple began posting Instagram photos showing a woman leading a man by the hand toward famous landmarks. The picture caught on, and soon, other couples copied it, which is why this style of photo took over travel accounts for a while. But within a year or so, people stopped using the pose since it became predictable—there are many better poses to use.
Kony 2012 Activism Posts
In March 2012, a video called Kony 2012 by the group Invisible Children went viral and it focused on a Ugandan warlord named Joseph Kony, encouraging people to raise awareness & help stop him. The video received over 100 million views in less than a week because people shared it everywhere—some cities even had posters about it. For a few weeks, it felt like everyone was involved, but after media scrutiny and backlash, people’s support disappeared completely.
Owling
Owling was a trend similar to planking, which involved people crouching down on objects and posing like an owl—arms tucked, knees up. They did it on chairs, shelves, appliances & fences, then posted the photos online with the tag “#owling.” It didn’t take off the same way planking did and most people didn’t keep doing it past a few days or weeks. Once people ran out of new places to try it, the trend lost steam and faded out as quickly as it had come in.
FaceApp Aging Photos
There was a weird stretch in 2019 when everyone suddenly looked like a grandparent on Instagram because the aging filter from FaceApp went viral out of nowhere. People couldn’t stop posting wrinkled, saggy versions of themselves and celebs joined in, only to make things worse. But once people realized that Russians had developed the app, they started to worry about privacy and the hype just fell apart.
Sarahah Anonymous Messages
Sarahah was an app that allowed people to send anonymous messages and for a minute, it was fun. Friends sent sweet messages, secret crushes dropped hints & everyone was screenshotting everything to post on Snapchat—until things got dark. Anonymity turned into an excuse for insult & harassment, so within months, some schools warned parents about the app’s dangers. By early 2018, barely anyone was using it and now it just feels like one of those things that never should’ve taken off.
Peach Social App
Peach was an app that had quite a bit of buzz and was kinda like texting yourself in public—you’d type “shout” or “gif” and post something with a flair. For about three days, everyone believed the app was the next big thing and then… crickets. There weren’t any timelines or comments, so it felt kind of empty and without a real way to interact, people stopped opening it.
Clubhouse
Clubhouse was a popular app during the lockdowns in 2021 and you needed an invite & an iPhone to join, which gave people a sense of exclusivity. Suddenly, everyone acted like listening to strangers talk live was the future—for a while, you couldn’t scroll Twitter without seeing a Clubhouse link. But once the app opened up to everybody, it lost that exclusiveness and most rooms became boring by the time life outside picked up again.
The Mannequin Challenge
For a couple of months in late 2016, people froze mid-action while a camera went through the scene like time had stopped as part of the Mannequin Challenge, with Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles” playing in the background of almost every video. At first, it was cool, as friends would pose mid-jump & people at work froze in mid-conversation—some schools even did full choreographed scenes. Unfortunately, by the time every office and sports team had posted theirs, it felt played out, so the trend disappeared by early 2017.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
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