On social media, it has become a passing of the torch as viewers decide who will get the “hype” next. However, as of recently, users have been coming to a consensus on who they should ignore next. Known as the ignoring celebrity trend, users will pick different celebrity targets and ignore their posts, causing a massive decrease from their typical likes and views. This is meant to be a way of taking away a sense of power from these creators, and is arguably worse than cancel culture, due to the clear embarrassment. There does not seem to be any pattern in the celebrities they are choosing, ranging from styles such as Jojo Siwa, all the way to Lizzo.

Another new trend that goes hand in hand with ignoring celebrities is mass followings. Users will choose a creator and pick a date and time to unfollow them, all at once. This overwhelming unfollowing will be advertised all over social media in weeks prior and seemingly has no reasoning behind it either. This is another form of embarrassment for creators as they lose support, for no apparent reason.

Everything considered, it all comes back to one question, why? Although there is no way to read the minds of every Tiktok user who participates in these visibly useless trends, there is a lot to be made of the given situation.

For many big time creators or celebrities, it is common that they will not listen to fan feedback much and simply use the platform to express their creativity. Through this trend, fans have shown that they are the ones who hold the power. They can give fame as easily as they can take it away. This is very humbling for many of the creators involved and can be a very quick reality check.

However, it is likely that these trends are not always towards random celebrities and may come from a place of dislike. For example, Jojo Siwa received a lot of negative feedback regarding her recent singles. She tried to make the most of the situation and go along with the joke, knowing it was bringing publicity to her music. By the time she released another single, all of her fans, and even haters, disappeared. Whereas her videos used to get 100 thousand or more likes, her likes plummeted down to 10-20 thousand per video. Despite this, she has continued posting and ignored the obvious change and her likes have begun going up again.

Another aspect of the ignoring celebrities trend is the sense of community and unanimity it requires. With such widespread interests within generations and social media cultivating diverse audiences, it is shocking so many people have come together for one sole purpose. Whether they use it for good, or for evil, the internet has clearly brought together a sense of power within its audience.

Without fans and viewers, social media is nothing. Creators need an audience in order to have a purpose and the ignoring celebrities trend brings on fears for many who rely on their audience for a paycheck. So which is better, to receive hate or to be completely ignored?