The Strange Pull of the Collective

I’ve always felt like we’re all connected. You know that strange moment when suddenly everyone’s into the same thing at the same time? People call it the bandwagon effect, but I think it’s deeper than that and harder to understand. Sometimes it feels like we’re all plugged into an invisible matrix that influences what we like, how we feel, even the things we do.

But I don’t like being part of a collective. I hate feeling dictated to. So, as much as possible, I pull back and avoid the mainstream, skip the trends, and carve out space to just be myself. I want to be my own person but sometimes this force feels bigger than me

I remember when I was a kid, I didn’t really like shanghai (spring rolls) because I didn’t like eating vegetables. But one day, shanghai started tasting good to me, and I was enjoying it without knowing that it also has became a trend. Like when I started buying mini Nitotan keychain plushies of Haikyuu characters even before the labubu craze started. I even remember inventing this weird dance move as a kid, practicing it in front of my reflection on a turned-off television. A few days later, I saw the exact same move being used by the dancers on ASAP (a ph show). It honestly made me wonder if someone had been watching me do that dance as a kid and copied me.

Right now what’s spreading is anger. People are exhausted, frustrated, and less willing to stay quiet. Anger at governments that can’t seem to get it together, at prices that keep going up, at the way lies spread online. There’s anger at injustice and inequality too, and at the feeling that we’re working harder but getting less. And I’m not ashamed to say I feel it too.