I have been using internet pretty much since the day it started; I know showing my age there! I can remember being at school when my parents bought their first ever modem and access to this brand new world started!
The concept of social media is a new one, but still exciting! We have seen the internet become a massive part of people's lives - we check our social media feeds like previous generations used to read the paper. Thanks to smartphones we can now keep track of our social media feeds nearly anywhere we are - and that's really helped social media to grow!
Over the last couple of years I have seen loads of trends come and go and thought I would have a little look back at them. As a plus size blogger I have a bit of a fascination with online trends and love seeing waves of different things happening online.
Memes
Over the last couple of years we have really seen the growth of memes - I don't know about you but my Facebook newsfeed has been littered with Minions lately! With social media we want thinks to be quick and easy to understand and memes are perfect for this. Funny photos that can be shared with everyone on our newsfeed at the click of a button - it's no big surprise that some of them go viral so quickly.
Hashtags
Twitter developed hashtags and a few years later Facebook got on board with the trend too. I know better than anyone how exciting it can be for a hashtag to do well after the success of #WeAreTheThey last year. When 'my' hashtag trended I was contacted by loads of magazines and papers, which is further evidence that hashtags and social media are taking over the mainsteam media.
People Inspiring Others
With the growth of social media we have seen people sharing their lives. A lot of this is about body confidence, health and fitness - as people want to share their milestones with the public. We've seen people become more aware of what is happening with their bodies and using social media as support groups for breaking bad habits. We see people blogging about their lives and inspiring others to be healthier, happier in their bodies, travel to new places, try different foods and so much more!
Health Trends
Social media has seen health trends come and go too. I am sure we have all seen juicing soar in popularity as people write about the health improvements we have seen. I know lots of bloggers that have given up smoking and switched to vaping, because they have seen how successful other people have been using these!
Social media is great if you see it as a big group of friends sharing their lives and inspiring the people around them. What I am excited to see is what trends will be taking over in 2016, I have a sneaking suspicion that plus size bloggers will feature somewhere!