31 Trends That Were Extremely Popular 15 Years Ago, But Now They'll Make Us All Say "Uhh, What Was That All About?!"

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16-04-2025

The 2010s were a pretty WEIRD time. It was essentially the first first full decade where social media was everywhere, and trends would spread like wildfire because of that. Looking back, we were all kinda cringy — we just didn't know it back then.
So recently, the people of Reddit have been naming some things that were "popular in the 2010s," but "didn't maintain popularity in the 2020s." And TBH, I forgot about a LOT of these trends. Let's dive in, shall we?
1. "Girls wearing bowler hats with a mustache tattooed on the side of their finger."
— MF-Geuze
2. "I could probably name like 20 different things, but one of the biggest ones: Katy Perry."
"You just had to be there for her absolute cultural titan status, and now she's been reduced to a has-been — or a Vegas resident act at best. In 2013, it would be hard to imagine the day."
— Napoleon333
4. "Statement necklaces with peplum tops."
— RavenUberAlles
5. "Vine."
— redliner88
"TikToks are just bad Vines."
— obvious_freud
6. "Yik Yak."
— Fog-Champ
"Even if you didn't personally experience something that happened, you knew about it from Yik Yak, and because it was hyper-local, it was normally relevant to you in some way, unlike most social media."
— FWR978
7. "Dressing like a lumberjack."
— BrilliantNothing2151
"As someone who was trying to date men and also someone who hates beards, this was a really rough time for me."
— sylvnal
9. "The duck face selfie."
— ogreloverboof
"I remember a sub-trend of the duck face. They called it 'duck hunting' and you'd go around commenting 'BANG' on duck-face photos."
— ljb2x
10. "Apparently, going to the movie theater."
"Never really recovered post-COVID."
— BeekyGardener
11. "Kanye."
— i__hate__stairs
12. "Not sure about the rest of the world but certainly in the UK, until around 2015-ish, walking around school with your trousers awfully low, exposing your neon boxers."
"Thought we were the absolute bollocks then."
— x99kjg
13. "Parkour."
— Jdnlk13
"Still see some kids jumping around occasionally and think about joining in. My knees hurt too much now, though."
— aviodallalliteration
14. "MP3 Players and iPods. Spotify basically took over."
— mikel145
16. "The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)."
— bflaminio
"The problem with the MCU is that it felt as if everything was building towards Endgame and once it was over with, everything after felt unnecessary. For me, that felt like the best place to stop, and nothing since has made me say 'I want to check this out.'
Bringing back Robert Downey Jr. isn't making me say 'Yes, I am interested.' It is making me say 'So, they are completely out of ideas.'"
— Worth_Box_8932
17. "Fidget spinners."
— Mementoes121655
Kristal O'Neal / Getty Images
19. "Going out to clubs and bars dressed like you just got out of the office, with a poof on top of your head."
— k_qu33n
20. "CUPCAKES."
"Fucking cupcakes everywhere."
— yeuzinips
Chameleonseye / Getty Images
21. "Bacon obsession."
— No-Manufacturer4916
"I always hated that because 9/10 times it ended up tasting like dog food."
— Mrchristopherrr
22. "Kik Messenger."
— Thtguy1289_NY
"I remember getting my first nudes from a bot on Kik.
My mum let my brother and me use it 'because it was safer,' but that changed pretty quickly."
— GyataMoko
23. "Galaxy leggings!"
— kate_rini21
Lisa5201 / Getty Images
24. "My Little Pony."
"Thankfully."
— Unicorn_Puppy
25. "Trivia Crack."
– ScorpionX-123
"Trivia Crack was something else. The questions were either insanely simple or super hard. Like either 'Which of these words is the word 'the'?' or 'George Washington's cousin's sister had a boyfriend. What was his middle name?'"
– afoz345
26. "Silly Bandz."
— SeaworthinessEmpty93
Dedraw Studio / Getty Images
27. "Dubstep."
"I haven't heard Skrill drop it hard in years."
— napleonblwnaprt
29. "Planking."
— Bento_Fox
30. "The Harlem Shake."
— Kamoebas
"That trend annoyed me so badly, because there already is a Harlem Shake! It's a legitimate dance that's been around for way longer than a weird video trend."
— RamblinWreckGT
31. And finally: "Indie rock/alternative rock became a dominant style of pop music for a little bit."
"Artists like Mumford & Sons, fun., Florence + the Machine, and even Fall Out Boy came back from their hiatus. It was a nice break from over-produced electronic pop."
– SaintSean128
"Yes, the brief moment in time my favorite style of music was mainstream."
– Ferreteria