It’s been a bit over a month since students in my area have stayed home.
Some of my friends and classmates have claimed that social distancing won’t stop them from having fun, and went outside anyway.
“If I die, I’ll die. Corona isn’t gonna kill me anyway.”
However, this social distancing has started interesting and new trends among students, especially on Instagram, where most of my classmates spend their time.
In the first week or two after social distancing was implemented, there was a crazy stream of Instagram stories in which you would perform an action and tag anywhere from five to ten other people to do the same.
These actions were simple and harmless. For instance, there were chains of posting a picture of yourself or drawing an apple, then asking five other friends to do the same and post it on their story. It was interesting and fun to be a part of at first, though it soon grew repetitive.
Within the artist community on Instagram, I noticed that a trend called #SixFanarts had started. User @ mcapriglioneart had started this trend, and nearly every single artist that I followed took part of #SixFanarts.
In this trend, artists would ask their followers for characters to draw, then pick six that they liked. On a template, they would then draw those six characters in their style.
Some artists did multiple “rounds,” doing twelve or more characters. Other artists had separate rounds for different fandoms, such as six characters just out of one show, or six characters from a video game. Specifically, Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Animal Crossing has also been a hot topic since the day of its release, which was on March 20, 2020. Because so many people talked about it that week, even though I wasn’t the one playing it, it felt as if I had played it myself.
Because the first Animal Crossing came out 19 years ago, many people were extremely excited to play it, and others joked that Animal Crossing would be the only thing getting them through social distancing. Still others complained that it was a childish, useless game that had no purpose.
The last major trend that I noticed within society, not just Instagram, was the rise of dalgona coffee. Dalgona coffee is a type of drink that existed in both South Korea and India. The name “dalgona” comes from a sweet Korean street candy, and because the foamy brown topping of dalgona coffee resembled the candy, it borrowed its name.
Many people, especially in the Asian community, have made it at least once or twice. This trend started in TikTok, but I found out about it when I started seeing my friends make it and post pictures of it on their Instagram story. A couple of days ago, BTS, arguably the most famous k-pop boy band, held a livestream of two of its members also making it, which exploded among the band’s fans.
Out of all the trends mentioned, dalgona coffee was the most popular, considering the thousands of articles and YouTube videos describing its origins, how to make it, and characteristics. KBS News, a Korean news channel, even addressed the trend of dalgona coffee in South Korea, including clips of BTS making this coffee.
Honestly, I am finding myself becoming more and more curious about this coffee, as well. I might make it sometime this weekend.
