The Monitor is a weekly column dedicated to every little thing taking place within the WIRED world of tradition, from motion pictures to memes, TV to Twitter.

Earlier this week, as everybody opened their Spotify Wrapped presents, I heard from associates—as traditional this time of 12 months—boasting about or lamenting the hours they’d dedicated to Taylor Swift. But this time my feeds have been additionally flooded with folks poking the train of Spotify Wrapped itself, reworking the rubric into one which confirmed how a lot time they spent doing issues that really mirrored their persona as an alternative of listening to songs. (Personal faves: “In total, you spent 525,600 minutes talking to the lil gay people inside your phone this year” and one other detailing mortal sins committed utilizing Microsoft Word.) 

It was a reminder that, whereas the psychological state of the world could also be evidenced within the music that individuals love most, tweeting about Spotify Wrapped itself says comparatively little. It’s a “trend” in essentially the most social-media sense of the phrase, one thing that occurs over the course of a day or two, leaving little affect. But it additionally raises an uncomfortable query: Do trending matters—on Twitter or wherever—nonetheless have something to say?

Trends, of their extra conventional that means, point out the de rigueur. High-waisted denims are a development, as are mullets. The inventory market tendencies upward or downward primarily based on issues like shopper spending or the whims of the Fed. Slang phrases are hella tendencies. Nonalcoholic drinks and bars are scorching proper now. (Called it.) These issues all develop and final over stretches of time. Some web tendencies, alternatively, have the lifespan of a gnat. They’re fleeting. Lots of crucial cultural moments, from #MeToo to #OscarsSoWhite, have come from trending matters, however these now really feel a part of a bygone period, one the place Twitter was the place folks talked about cultural moments. Twitter has at all times been a spot to speak about information, however now Twitter is the information. 

Even now, the world’s eyes are on the conflict in Ukraine and the protests in Iran due to social media, notably Twitter. But the churn of tendencies has turn into so scattered that hashtags are not chargeable for preserving them within the public eye; it’s the diligent efforts of these on the bottom. Social media has sped up every little thing to the purpose that tendencies are so fleeting, and so simply gamed, that they don’t imply a lot. (Though, if this essay begins to development, a request: Bring again bloomers.) 

Twitter’s Trends function has been a problem for a while, one thing that didn’t at all times appear to mirror an genuine view of what customers cared about. Since the daybreak of the Musk Era, it’s turn into even much less clear whether or not these tendencies mirror what customers are inquisitive about or the pursuits of these seeking to recreation its system for political ends, advertising and marketing engagement, or simply lulz. Now that hate speech can go viral on the platform, it appears even worse.