25 Dumbest Internet Trends That Need To Stop

Posted by , Updated on December 29, 2023

Overall, the internet has created amazing opportunities for people. From opening a business, connecting with family far away, or accessing information, it’s revolutionized the way people live. However, like a double-edged sword, it cuts both ways. Dumb internet trends are a great example of that. Every year, dumb trends pop up, making us question humanity again. Let’s take a look at some that really jumped the shark. Here are 25 Dumbest Internet Trends That Need To Stop.

25

Instagram Food Photos

Camera_eat_first_1

Let’s get this one out of the way right now. No one now or in the future wants to see what you’re eating. While the trend of slapping on different filters over a picture of your key lime pie at the beach might seem attractive, it’s not a good idea. Just say no.

24

Live Tweeting

live tweeting

Live Tweeting is a symptom of people always having to be in the know about everything. There’s really no reason to do this. Just read about it later in one article. You’ll thank us later.

23

Memes

Land-law-meme

We’ll admit that memes are pretty funny and deserve a good chuckle now and again, but they’re still dumb. It’s because they’re a dumb trend that they still get churned out all over the web.

22

Everyone Podcasting

podcasting

The power of the airwaves for decades was reserved to DJ’s in radio stations. When podcasts came around, everyone and their mom started to do it, making it a massive trend and creating thousands of podcasts that literally no one listened to.

21

Farmville

FarmvilleSource: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Around 2009, FarmVille blew up as Facebook’s most popular game. As a result, everyone on Facebook got tons of annoying invites to play. Of course, like most trends, FarmVille lost its allure and popularity. It’s easy to understand why. You can only pretend to be a farmer for so long before realizing it’s the worst.

20

Internet Paywalls

paywall

With the internet becoming the main source of information for most people, the news industry faced a dilemma of how to make money on news that was widely free online. Their answer was forcing paywalls on their news websites. While this trend is still going, it’s still pretty dumb. All anyone needs to do is search for the same topic somewhere else, and they’ll likely find it. They’re not luring any new customers with those things.

19

Cat Bearding

cat beard

Cat photos will never leave the internet and will only continue to evolve and morph in new and bizarre ways. Enter the cat beard. A clever but weird idea where people position their cats face in a way that it looks like a person’s mouth and beard. Its mere existence drops your IQ a little.

18

Hot Dog Legs

hot dog legsSource: http://www.smh.com.au

In 2013, a dumb trend called Hot Dog Legs swept the internet. People, in all their wisdom, took photos of hot dogs together and then photos of legs together. You had to figure out which were legs and which were hot dogs. Honestly, it was pretty easy to figure it out, though sometimes the pictures were eerily convincing.

17

Candy Crush

candy crush

How people became so addicted to this game is anyone’s guess. Candy Crush is essentially just a slightly modified version of Tetris, but with candy. Either way, in order to advance, players had to invite friends to play the game. A slew of invites flooded Facebook for a time, much like FarmVille, to the irritation of people who had no interest in playing candy Tetris.

16

Water Bottle Flip Challenge

watter bottleSource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCgvXkihAjI

Out of all the internet challenges trending, the water bottle flip challenge at least doesn’t cause bodily harm. But it’s still really dumb. The idea is simple. The poor person who decided to do this takes a water bottle in hand, flips it, and hopes it lands upright. The winner gets about five minutes of wasted time.

15

Purritos

purritos

Remember when we said cat pictures will continue to evolve? Well, here’s another dumb trend involving cats. They call them “Purritos,” and it’s pretty easy to see why.

14

Shelfies

shelfie

Bookworms worship their bookshelves. It’s like their altar. And so, like taking food pictures on Instagram, they decided to take pictures of their shelves. It’s called a “Shelfie.” While this trend is still pretty silly, we have to admit this rainbow organization is kinda awesome.

13

Snapchat Filters

snapchat filter

Snapchat filters are still kind of a thing, and we all know that it shouldn’t be. Of course, making yourself vomit a rainbow or have puppy ears is amusing the first time, but now it just needs to go away.

12

Cone-ing

ConeingSource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygNjMSllLQ

Cone-ing. It’s the new planking! But not really. The idea behind this is pretty simple. After ordering an ice cream cone, the person grabs it on the ice cream side (the wrong way) to the horror of the server. It makes no sense and is kind of a waste of money.

11

Fingermouthing Pose

fingermouthingSource: https://www.thesun.co.uk

Duck face is out. Fingermouthing pose is totally in. Which means it’s even worse. Beloved by social media icons like Kylie Jenner, Fingermouthing is pretty simple. Place your fingers to your lips, look smoldering, and take a selfie. Now, rethink your life.

10

Fake news

How_To_Spot_Fake_NewsSource: http://www.npr.org

Last year, fake news hit its fever pitch during the American Presidential elections. Both sides were trying to fool voters into believing things that weren’t true in order to sway their decisions. It’s a trend no one really saw coming until it was too late. Here’s hoping this is a trend we can put behind us for good.

9

The Duct Tape Challenge

1366px-Duct-tapeSource: http://www.ibtimes.com/

The Duct Tape Challenge involves wrapping someone in duct tape and seeing how long it takes for them to escape. Of course, duct tape is incredibly sticky and strong, making it impossible to get free. To make matters worse, kids have been severely injured doing it. So, it’s probably best to save a few brain cells and stay away from this one.

8

Vine

728px-The_Vine_Logo.svg

Vine was a smartphone app devoted to creating super short video clips. While the experiment resulted in some clever videos, most of it was dumb. Like most trends, Vine met its end when the app decided to shut down for good.

7

Baby Mugging

baby mugging

This trend with a very unfortunate name falls in line with the Cat Beard idea. Taking their mug of a choice, a proud parent places it in the frame so when they take a picture, their child looks like it’s inside the mug. It’s cute until you take it to its logical conclusion.

6

Darth Vadering

darth vadering

Darth Vadering makes it look like someone is choking you to death with the magic of photography. It’s like planking but piggybacks on an infamous character. So, it at least gets brownie points for that.

5

Banana Peel Challenge

accidentSource: http://www.eonline.com

It’s an experiment for the ages. If you step on a banana, will you fall? Of course, you will! That won’t stop teenagers all over the internet from trying this challenge and giving them a first-class ticket to the hospital.

4

Gallon Smashing

800px-Milk_jug_uprightSource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcoijM3QaGQ

There’s no better way to waste valuable, delicious milk than Gallon Smashing. While on video, teens take two gallons of milk and smash them on the ground, pretending to slip and fall. Of the dumb trends that the internet has fueled, this one is close to taking the cake.

3

Dabbing

Do_the_Dab

Like its ancient ancestor the Macarena or the Nae Nae before it, the Dab has taken the internet by storm and as a result, every child in America is covering their faces in shame as they raise their arms up in the air. One day, they’ll understand how dumb this is, but until then, dab on.

2

Condom Challenge

Condom_challengeSource: https://www.theguardian.com

For what can only be described as the failure of the sex education system, teenagers have come up with the condom challenge. In simple terms, someone puts water inside a condom, filling it up like a balloon, and then they proceed to drop it on someone’s head. The condom doesn’t break but wraps around the head with the water still inside. We’re honestly a little afraid what they’re going to make up next year.

1

Pokemon Go

pokemon goSource: https://www.bloomberg.com

Pokemon Go blew up in 2016, becoming an overnight sensation and making people actually take walks outside again. Empty parks were now full of people trying to catch invisible digital monsters. Of course, as we all know, this trend died off in less than a month, leaving grown adults to wonder why they decided to take part in the first place.



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