#OpEd: Trends Are the New Treadmill - Everyone’s Running, Nobody’s Arriving
Everyone’s going viral. Nobody’s being remembered. The internet’s irony is brutal: the more creators chase trends, the less unique they become.
Scroll through your feed and it’s déjà vu on loop - same sound, same template, same jump-cut smile. Everyone’s dancing to the same audio, hoping the algorithm picks them.
In the chase to be seen, creators are slowly disappearing into sameness.
The Great Copy-Paste Epidemic
Trends used to feel like culture. Now they feel like compulsion.
The moment a Reel goes viral, creators jump on it like a flash sale - remixing the same format till it loses meaning. The result? A feed that looks more like a clone army than a creative industry.
It’s not that trends are bad. They’re fun. They’re fuel. They’re community. But when every creator is sprinting on the same treadmill, no one’s really moving forward.
The Algorithm Whisper
Here’s the uncomfortable truth - no creator starts out wanting to sound like everyone else.
But then the algorithm whispers: “This worked. Do it again.”
And we listen.
That tiny dopamine hit from views, likes, and shares rewires how we think about success. Soon, content becomes less about expression and more about expectation. The algorithm becomes both mentor and monster - a system that rewards imitation while punishing silence.
Creators stop asking “What do I want to say?” and start asking “What’s trending today?”
When Authenticity Becomes a Niche
Originality used to be the baseline. Now it’s a genre.
We praise creators who post raw, imperfect content like they’ve reinvented the wheel but all they did was be human. That’s how warped the bar has become.
Audiences aren’t unaware; they know when something’s performative. What they crave isn’t polish - it’s presence. Not trend participation - but perspective.
The Courage to Sit One Out
Here’s an underrated flex in 2025: not jumping on every trend.
There’s power in restraint - in letting a viral wave pass because it doesn’t align with your voice.
It signals confidence, not absence.
The best creators aren’t the ones who post the most - they’re the ones who know why they post.
Skipping a trend is not rebellion; it’s direction.
The Return of Voice Over Virality
A new creator wave is quietly emerging - not the loudest, not the fastest, but the most intentional.
They tell stories instead of following formats.
They use trends like seasoning, not the recipe.
They create for connection, not the algorithm.
These are the voices building equity while others chase ephemerality.
Because virality fades. Identity compounds.
The Final Word
Trends are the fast food of content - they taste great, they fill you up, but they never last.
Creators need to start cooking again.
Stop sprinting for reach. Build rhythm for resonance.
Because someday, when the algorithm forgets you (and it will), your voice is all that’ll remain.
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When Creators Became Search Engines
A few years ago, if you wanted to know the best ramen spot in Delhi, you’d Google it.
Today, you type it into Instagram. Or YouTube. Or sometimes you don’t even type. You just trust that a creator you follow has already done the homework for you.
Somewhere between reels, vlogs and “things you must try before you die” lists, creators have quietly stepped into a role search engines once dominated: answers.
Search, But With Personality
Traditional search gives you links. Creators give you context.
Instead of scrolling through ten articles about the “best cafes in Bandra,” you watch one creator walk into the place, order the coffee, complain about the seating and rate the croissant.
Suddenly the information feels…usable.
This is why queries that once lived on Google now live on social feeds:
-Best cafes in Bangalore
-Budget travel hacks
-Skincare routines for Indian skin
-Laptop recommendations for students
People want answers, yes. But increasingly, they want answers from someone they recognise.
The Trust Shortcut
Creators work as search engines for one simple reason: trust. Google may give you 50 results for “best protein powder.” A fitness creator you follow gives you three options and a brutally honest take on which one tastes like chalk.
It’s not always objective. But it feels real.
And for audiences navigating everything from skincare ingredients to travel planning, that sense of lived experience matters more than algorithmic ranking.
Discovery Is Moving to Social
This shift has quietly changed how brands think about discovery. Products are no longer found only through ads or search pages. They’re discovered through:
-a creator’s “things I bought this month” video
-a cafe recommendation reel
-a tech review shot in someone’s bedroom
The search journey now often begins with a person, not a platform. Which is why brands increasingly care about being present in creator conversations - not just search results.
The Human Search Result
Of course, creators don’t replace search engines entirely. But they do something search engines can’t: they filter the internet through human experience.
A travel creator doesn’t just tell you where to go. They tell you whether the crowd is unbearable, whether the food is overrated and whether the place is actually worth the hype.
That’s not just information. That’s judgement.
And in the endless chaos of the internet, sometimes the most valuable thing isn’t more results. It’s someone saying, “Don’t bother. This one’s better.”
The Creator Economy’s Most Underrated Platform: YouTube Shorts
There’s a certain predictability to creator economy conversations in India.
Instagram comes up first. Always.
Then maybe a passing mention of long-form YouTube. And somewhere in between, brand folks talk about reels, reach, and what’s “working right now.”
YouTube Shorts rarely enters that conversation with the same urgency.
Which is strange, because if you look closely, it’s doing a lot more than people give it credit for.
Shorts doesn’t behave like Instagram. That’s probably why it’s misunderstood. On Instagram, content lives and dies by momentum - the first few minutes, the early engagement, the algorithm deciding whether you’re worth pushing further.
Shorts feels…slower. But also steadier.
A video doesn’t necessarily peak and disappear. It keeps floating. It resurfaces. Sometimes days later. Sometimes weeks. Creators who’ve spent enough time on the platform will tell you this: a video you forgot about can suddenly pick up traction out of nowhere.
That doesn’t happen as often elsewhere.
There’s also the audience itself. Shorts reaches a version of India that Instagram doesn't fully touch - smaller cities, different language preferences, users who aren’t necessarily following creators but are constantly consuming them.
Which means discovery works differently here.
On Instagram, you often grow through followers. On Shorts, you grow through distribution.
The platform doesn’t always care if someone knows you. It cares if your content is worth showing again. That’s a big shift.
For brands, this creates an odd gap.
On one hand, Shorts offers massive reach, strong repeat visibility, and a user base that is still expanding in meaningful ways. On the other, it doesn’t have the same cultural signalling as Instagram yet.
A reel feels like a moment.
A Shorts video feels like…content.
So naturally, budgets lean toward what feels visible. But that gap is also where the opportunity sits. Because while everyone competes for attention on one platform, another one quietly becomes less crowded, more forgiving, and in many ways, more scalable.
Creators, of course, have already figured this out.
Many of them aren’t choosing between platforms anymore. They’re repurposing, adapting, and in some cases, building entirely separate audiences on Shorts. It’s not unusual to see someone with modest Instagram numbers pull significantly higher views on YouTube Shorts.
Different algorithm. Different audience behaviour. Different outcome.
The interesting part isn’t that Shorts is growing. It’s that it’s growing without demanding attention. No loud narrative. No “this is the next big thing” moment.
Just consistent distribution, wide reach, and a platform that keeps showing content to people who didn’t know they were looking for it.
And maybe that’s why it’s underrated.
Not because it’s small.
But because it doesn’t try too hard to prove that it isn’t.