Photos taken by Leigh Shields
Deep down, everyone just wants to fit in. It’s a human desire to want to be liked and accepted. Even if you don’t admit it, people love to conform.
There’s an idea in psychology called normative social influence, which says that a person conforms to social norms to be accepted and avoid isolation. This desire to be accepted is what leads to the creation of things like fashion trends.
People want to be a part of a group that is seen as cool, so they participate in popular trends.
The flip side of this is the desire to stand out as different. People want to be unique, while they desire to fit in at the same time. Because of this, people start to hate things that are considered cool and popular.
In doing so, they are inadvertently creating a new trend, which is to hate trendy things. Those who want to be unique hop on this hating trend to make fun of popular interests. People who enjoy popular things are then seen as basic or boring.
This creates an endless cycle of criticizing people for their interests, some being called basic and others being called too quirky. Instead of criticizing each other for what we like to do and wear, why don’t we just let people enjoy things?
People should be allowed to participate in whatever trends they want to without being looked down upon.
There’s nothing wrong with being basic!
Some of the popular “basic” trends right now are yoga pants, scrunchies, crocs and, of course, the Free People shorts.
Girls are criticized for taking part in these trends for no reason other than it’s now cool to hate on trendy things.
When it comes down to it, what someone chooses to wear does not affect you. These trendy clothes are trendy for a reason — they’re actually cute!
