A Cursory Look At Trends Past

Not too long ago, the 10-year challenge was trending on social media.

- Wendy Long

Not too long ago, the 10-year challenge was trending on social media. Participants posted 10-year-old and current photos of themselves. The two most common reactions they garnered were, “Wow! You look as young as, if not younger than, before,” or “You’re even more gorgeous now!” I’m sure a lot of thought went into selecting the photos to elicit the most favorable comments.

I wanted to jump on the bandwagon and post-decade-old photos too, but alas nobody nominated me for the challenge (yes, you have to be nominated.) But it could have been for the better, as I cannot even bring myself to post a five-year-old photo, let alone one taken 10 years ago. I’ll be sparing friends the awkwardness of addressing the elephant in the room, the “Oh, you looked different…hmm….” kind of reaction. Hopefully, it’s for the better, but that will be admitting that I looked terrible before. So there you go, it’s best not to follow a trend without thinking of the greater good!

Sometimes, even if I avoid opening albums of my old photographs that haunt me to this day, Facebook creeps up on my feed (while assuring me that only I can see the message) with a reminder of what I posted on this day years ago. More often than not, I’ll be mortified by what I wore and how I did my makeup, styled my hair, posed, etc. It was only two or three years ago, but what was I thinking? Do we really change that much over a short span of time, or are trends so fleeting these days that everything ages in three seconds?