From pride to self-deprecation... again
Understanding Gen Z behavior through the evolution of a trend
Gen Z constantly creates new trends. Some trends are funny, others are cool, but rarely are they sentimental. For this reason, last week’s #welldone trend, which currently has over 3.2 billion views, stood out among its peers.
In this trend, Gen Z used Post Malone’s song “Feeling Whitney” layered with an audio of Disney’s Olaf saying “Wow, well done!” to highlight their successes.
Typically, in the first half of the video, users share something that they’ve achieved but that their younger self had never dreamt of accomplishing. Then, in the second half, they pretend to be their younger self and mouth the words “Wow, well done,” as if admiring how far their present-day self has come. Check out these examples:
For many of us, it felt great to take a pause to reflect on our successes in order to share and celebrate them together, especially as we waited anxiously for the US election results. For a change, we had a trend that focused on the positives.
However, this didn't last long. Over the weekend, this prideful trend managed to evolve into yet another self-deprecating trend. In this new spin-off trend, users point out a negative aspect of their present-day self and then criticize themselves by having their "young-self" mouth "wtf" in disgust.
In this video, for example, the creator exposes himself for struggling to do long division as a teen despite the fact that as a kid, he had wanted to become a doctor. Finally, to drive the point home, he captioned the video "safe to say my plans have ✨changed✨."
We can not seem to escape self-deprecating humor. For many, it is a coping mechanism. Instead of moping over our failures, we joke about them! Is it healthy? Perhaps not, but at this point, there's no turning back 🙃.
Self-depreciation is also highly relatable, as evidenced by the comments section of the aforementioned video. "i still can't read time, BYE LMAO," commented one viewer.
The takeaway?
What can a brand takeaway from this? Well, the evolution of this particular trend has clearly shown Gen Z's affinity towards self-deprecating humor. Regardless of whether we do it to cope with our emotions or to gain social acceptance through relatability, it is undeniable that self-deprecation is well-received among our generation. A brand that manages to relate to us through our sense of humor will be welcomed and as a result, stay top-of-mind.