'Garbage trends' clog the internet — and they may be here to stay

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'Garbage trends' clog¹ the internet — and they may be here to stay

Transcript²

Happy first anniversary to when sea shanties³ briefly⁴ took over the internet.

NPR was among the media organizations hyping the charming online phenomenon in January 2021 of people belting out maritime⁵ folk songs. After the inevitable⁶ wave of remixes and parodies⁷, the trend quickly died.

"It was like a whole craze for a week, then no one remembered it ever again," muses⁸ Rebecca Jennings. The senior correspondent for Vox covers internet culture; she coined the term "garbage trend" in a December article to describe these fast-moving, short-lived online phenomena⁹.

Other garbage trend examples she's noticed over the past year range from a viral baked feta pasta, a flare¹⁰ of intense interest in "RushTok" (Alabama sorority hopefuls explaining their rush outfits), Elon Musk's fitful promotion¹¹ of Dogecoin and the divisive slang term "cheugy."

"Garbage trends ... are kind of like fast fashion," Jennings points out. "They sort of come out of nowhere, they seem very of the moment, everyone showers them with attention and in some respects, money and time and meaning and then the next week they're in ... the figurative landfill of ideas."

There's nothing new about fads¹² and trends. Rightly or wrongly, many people associate the Dutch Golden Age in the mid-1600s for its overhyped tulip mania¹³. Perhaps your great-great grandparents took part in the Charleston dance craze of the 1920s. (Vintage clips of Josephine Baker¹⁴ performing it seem almost to presage¹⁵ TikTok videos.)

But Jennings points out a major difference. "The speed of these trends that come and go is so much faster," she says. "I think TikTok and these other algorithm-based platforms are a huge part of it."

These algorithms direct our attention, goose it along and monetize it. They're also what drives the spin cycle of content showing up in personalized feeds on Netflix, Spotify or your news app of choice.

"Barely anyone knows how these algorithms actually work," Jennings says, referring to casual consumers steered¹⁶ by machine intelligence — and to an extent, even the marketers who manipulate them. "They test something and then if it doesn't blow up, they'll just get rid of it. If it does [blow up], they'll shove it in everyone's faces, and then move on to the next thing."

Jennings is troubled about how garbage trends drive cultural conversations during an ever-widening vacuum of local news — it's often easier, she points out, to run across outraged¹⁷ responses over a clip of a school board meeting a thousand miles away than to find unbiased coverage¹⁸ of your own school board meetings. Much like NFTs, cryptocurrencies or Web 3.0, garbage trends take up a lot of internet oxygen, she adds. "But you don't really know what actually is meaningful or valuable about them."

Ultimately, Jennings says, garbage trends also mirror the pace of the pandemic over the past two years. "Things have just felt so frenzied," she observes. The vaccines¹⁹ arrive, and everything seems to be on an upswing. "Oh wait, no, delta's here. Everything's not fine. And oh, omicron. What are we supposed to do?"

The garbage trend — as admittedly stupid as it is — can help people feel rooted in the moment when the future feels terribly uncertain, Jennings says. In any case, the garbage trend is not a trend. As long as algorithms are invested in hooking us in, garbage trends are here to stay.

1 clog   

vt.塞满，阻塞；n.[常pl.]木屐

参考例句：

• In cotton and wool processing,short length fibers may clog sewers.在棉毛生产中，短纤维可能堵塞下水管道。
• These streets often clog during the rush hour.这几条大街在交通高峰时间常常发生交通堵塞。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 shanties   

n.简陋的小木屋( shanty的名词复数 )；铁皮棚屋；船工号子；船歌

参考例句：

• A few shanties sprawl in the weeds. 杂草丛中零零落落地歪着几所棚屋。 来自辞典例句
• The workers live in shanties outside the factory. 工人们住在工厂外面的小棚屋内。 来自互联网

4 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

5 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

6 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

7 parodies   

n.拙劣的模仿( parody的名词复数 )；恶搞；滑稽的模仿诗文；表面上模仿得笨拙但充满了机智用来嘲弄别人作品的作品v.滑稽地模仿，拙劣地模仿( parody的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Later, however, they delight in parodies of nursery rhymes. 可要不了多久，他们便乐于对它进行窜改。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
• Most parodies are little more than literary teases. 大多数讽刺的模仿诗文只能算上是文学上的揶揄。 来自辞典例句

8 muses   

v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事）

参考例句：

• We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. 欧洲那种御用的诗才，我们已经听够了。 来自辞典例句
• Shiki muses that this is, at least, probably the right atmosphere. 志贵觉得这至少是正确的气氛。 来自互联网

9 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

10 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

11 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

12 fads   

n.一时的流行，一时的风尚( fad的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It was one of the many fads that sweep through mathematics regularly. 它是常见的贯穿在数学中的许多流行一时的风尚之一。 来自辞典例句
• Lady Busshe is nothing without her flights, fads, and fancies. 除浮躁、时髦和幻想外，巴歇夫人一无所有。 来自辞典例句

13 mania   

n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好

参考例句：

• Football mania is sweeping the country.足球热正风靡全国。
• Collecting small items can easily become a mania.收藏零星物品往往容易变成一种癖好。

14 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

15 presage   

n.预感，不祥感；v.预示

参考例句：

• The change could presage serious problems.这变化可能预示着有严重问题将要发生。
• The lowering clouds presage a storm.暗云低沉是暴风雨的前兆。

16 steered   

v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
• The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

18 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

19 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。