When the Nihilistic Penguin began flooding our social media feeds recently, it joined a long parade of hyper-specific, blink-and-you-miss-it internet moments. One week, it is a penguin. Next, it is a sound bite, a filter, a “core,” or a new aesthetic. It feels as though everything is a trend now.
But according to Ria Chopra, the problem is not that trends exist; it’s that we are noticing them more than ever before.
At the recent Hyderabad Literary Festival, Siasat.com caught up with Ria Chopra, the “neighbourhood internet anthropologist” and the author of the bestselling book “Never Logged Out: How the Internet Created India’s Gen Z”.
Having spent years dissecting the digital psyche, Ria offered a calmer perspective on our collective trend anxiety. She explains that we are currently living through a trend cycle on steroids. “We are looking too closely at specific trends,” she said, “Trends have always existed. What’s changed is their shelf life.”
The “newness” of social media
There was a time when one meme could dominate the internet for months. Think of Troll Face or Grumpy Cat. Even viral videos like Damn Daniel stuck around long enough for everyone to reference them. Today, novelty refreshes daily.
“The volume of social media has increased,” she tells Siasat.com, “Earlier, one meme lasted months. Now there’s something new every day.”
This acceleration creates the feeling that everything is temporary and disposable. And yet, she argues, not everything disappears. Some shifts embed themselves deeply. Take the word “situationship.” It surfaced around 5 years back and never really left. The meme may fade, but the vocabulary of modern relationships persists.
In her book Never Logged Out, Ria Chopra situates this phenomenon within a larger generational shift. For Gen Z, especially in India, the internet is not an add-on to life. It is formative. It shapes language, identity, and social scripts in real time.
“Things that stick, stick,” she says. “Trends have always come and gone. But long-term developments stay.”
From 70s bell-bottoms to GRWM videos
If trends have always existed, why does everyday behaviour now feel like performance? GRWM (Get Ready With Me) videos are a perfect example. People have always gotten ready. But now, the act itself is content.
Ria Chopra resists the idea that this is entirely new. In the 1970s, a single Amitabh Bachchan film sent bell-bottom sales soaring. “I have seen photos of my dad and uncles wearing bell-bottoms because that was the trend at the time. In fact, the “Sadhana cut” became a huge thing in the 1960s because of the actress Sadhana Shivdasani. Similarly, after Bobby, dressing like Dimple Kapadia became aspirational. So fashion and beauty have always been a trend”, she says.
Emulation has always existed. However, earlier, it was one movie that influenced the audience for months. Now it is hundreds of reels every day.
The crucial difference is participation. In the past, audiences consumed culture. Today, they can instantly join it. “If we watched a movie earlier, we couldn’t be in it. Now, if we watch a GRWM video, we can make one too.”
That accessibility has transformed spectators into creators and created an entire industry around self-documentation.
Performing online, performing everywhere
For Gen Z, is a life without digital performance even possible? Ria’s take is grounded: we are always performing. “I perform in real life too,” she says matter-of-factly. “I am different with my parents than with my friends. I code-switch depending on where I am.”
The danger is not the performance itself, but the lack of intention behind it. “I think it is important to aspire for a life as true to yourself as possible. Who are we trying to keep happy when we perform on social media? Is it ourselves or is it other people? Whose approval do we seek? Whose attention do we seek by posting on Instagram? I think those most philosophical questions are the ones we need to start asking ourselves. Once we think about them, it will lead to healthier behaviour,” she explains.
Can we escape the trend cycle?
Ria Chopra says we are currently facing a “trend exhaustion,” especially around aesthetic identities and physical trends that change by the week: cottagecore, clean girl, main character, soft launch.
This has led to a growing shift toward “offline” living, with film cameras, journaling, and digital detoxes. But even that rebellion is often curated and posted. As she points out in Never Logged Out, going offline has itself become a visual trend.
So will the exhaustion end?
“I don’t know, actually, if this will end or not,” she admits. “I hope this exhaustion leads to something good, but I’m not sure.”
That cautious optimism runs through her book as well. Never Logged Out does not demonise the internet, nor does it paint Gen Z as trapped. Instead, it asks readers to examine how digital culture has formed them and how awareness can change the way they participate in it.
In a world where everything feels like a trend, Ria’s answer is not to log off entirely. It is to log in consciously.
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