Labubus got extra kick from being gambling also. Many were sold in boxes without labels or with minimal labels that listed possible contents. That makes the actual product into more of a loot box kind of thing. That might have contributed to the speed of the trend passing.
I think I heard it was a bit more than that - you'd buy them online direct, blind, and be informed immediately after purchase what it was you'd actually bought, so bringing in the immediacy and "convenience" of online gambling/gacha/etc. too, compared to ordering a mystery box and opening it when it was delivered, or buying foil packs of trading cards where you need to actually be present at a particular location.
beanie babies were rational, there was a supply constriction that seemed permanent, the founder resolved it and flooded the market, leaving bagholders and decades of mockery
but I would content it was not an example of irrational exuberance
labubu’s are part of a flooded market as well, but there was never anything to suggest it wouldnt be flooded only an expectation for demand to keep up longer than just half of this year
The social commentary i’ve read is that some fast trends are made and followed by the “top trend makers”. Then they fade out in those circles, and dwindle to “common people”. But at that point, it’s not really cool or status symbol.
The way I understood is, if you’re hyper-online and very consumerist, you’ll want to onto the train fast, and get off it fast so you would be deemed as a “trend maker” rather than “trend follower”. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but it’s a bit more visible within Tokyo/Shanghai subcultures. It was less visible to me in Vancouver, where there’s a single main culture (everything outdoor and outdoor related) and not participating is also “not cool”.
Not sure how you could make sense when the topic it self is nonsensical?? Trying to rationalize internet fads just seems as futile as getting involved with the fad itself.
Isn't that the whole idea of hipsters? They existed far before online culture. And not much different to how teenagers have always rebelled against the traditional culture.
Feels like there's a contradiction in a piece that claims a fad is definitively over while simultaneously asserting the unknowability of our fragmented Internet culture.
Everything's decentralized, but at the same time, I have my finger on the pulse.
They have just started showing up in stores around me. I can believe they have fallen off social media feeds while still growing in sales silently as people get them to put on bags or gift rather than post on tiktok.
Im not so sure, the big "fall" of labubus so far was for flippers and their profits, Popmart on the other hand has been selling more than ever with their restocks still selling out almost instantly.
Them being accessible and there being supply for much demand is having hit equilibrium. Give it another year or two before grave dancing. Many are still just only buying them now with them being accessible.
Adam Conover argued that the craze is an indicator of economic nihilism, that people who can’t afford these things buy them anyways as an expression of hopelessness that they’ll ever have a pathway to legitimately changing their station: https://youtu.be/l1O6bN2zWSM?si=QGd51tfmh8lOjezk
> The reality is that the internet has become decentralized; rather than people staying in one gigantic, unified group with shared trends and moments like they used to, users go their separate ways, with social media algorithms providing hyper-curated content that pushes users toward smaller groups with niche shared interests.
Huh, this feels exactly backwards. The web used to be WAY more decentralized.
Internet services have become centralized. Internet culture has fragmented, or really just disappeared entirely.
Being chronically online doesn't make you part of a special group anymore. It's just how everyone lives their lives. There are no inside jokes, no nerd lingo. Even memes are basically dead now.
I don't think this is true. There has been an explosive growth in cultures which are interest based rather than location based. Board games, furries, car people, kpop, etc. These groups all have their own inside jokes, terminology, events, etc.
What has been lost is gathering a random sample of people in the same city and them all being on roughly the same page about culture.
Feels like culture in general has become fragmented, or in other words, more personalized. It was said that Top 10 Hit Songs or Movies would be recognized by everyone because it'd be the only thing playing in radio. Now that everyone can have their own preferences, no more shared experiences.
If not a nerd lingo, there's absolutely inside jokes and new lingo. Skibidi, 6 7, blah blah. Even people saying things like "bet" are all part of new lingo that kids think is cool because the olds don't know what they are talking about. Only the words/phrases change, but the desire of kids doing something different than olds is never going to change.
> Even people saying things like "bet" are all part of new lingo
Maybe I'm just black, but there's absolutely nothing new about "bet." Unless you mean last 50 years new maybe (I can only vouch for 50 years.)
Still goes to your point, though. The kids are just imitating black people like their parents, their parents parents, and their parents parents parents, and their parents parents parents parents, and their parents parents parents parents parents. The desire of the kids to repeat things that they heard black people say is at least 150 years old at this point if the cakewalk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk) is a good spot to date it from.
I think "balkanized" is a better way to describe communities and users online. As in sorted and separated into non-overlapping algorithmic cul-de-sacs which mostly do not interact with each other and which are (often) hostile when members of one algorithmically isolated community happen upon members of another.
If you swap decentralized for personalized then the point about hyper-curated media bubbles do make sense. It feels backwards because it’s not how we use decentralized in the industry, it’s probably the same reason you correctly said web instead of internet.
OP is talking about culture rather than technology. Two people both on youtube see entirely different content. Both people will have their own set of big famous creators in their bubble and have never heard of the other persons famous youtubers.
> Huh, this feels exactly backwards. The web used to be WAY more decentralized
I think you're referring to something different than the article
I agree with you the web used to be more decentralized in terms of unique websites, blogs, communities, etc. It is much more homogenous now, with majority of traffic and community forming on a few social networks instead of across hundreds of sites and forums
However, within the social media sites users have become much more siloed than they used to be. Algorithms are trying to isolate us into our own personal echo chambers rather than just giving us the raw feed and letting us navigate it
To be fair, the raw feed is absolute slop. If you ever look at youtube without an account or cookies, there's almost nothing worth watching. Youtube has become the biggest social media on the planet by showing people stuff they actually like rather than whats hot.
Youtube will show me an in depth technical video from 3 years ago over the latest MrBeast slop even if the MrBeast video is getting far better numbers.
I do feel like _something_ has been lost by the lack of monoculture though. It's been most evident in music where there almost is no pop music anymore. There is nothing everyone knows and generally likes. DJs either have to play highly targeted events or pop music from 2012.
Agreed on the last paragraph. When I grew up (long time ago), almost everyone saw the most recent <kids show> because there were only 3 or 4 on after school, and generally only one targeted towards each major peer group.
Sure, you can now choose from 27 different shows in each genre (comedy, drama, romance, business, cops, medical dramas, etc), each with many seasons to watch/stream/binge, but odds that your friend saw the same episode last night? Approximately zero. Whereas, "must see tv", as trite as it was, almost always gave you something to talk about the next day.. "No soup for you!" was huge in my circles for quite some time, for example.
And the less someone shares with you in terms of background, the easier it is to withdraw into your own bubble, and watch more shows alone, and become more isolated..
Maybe I wasn't in the circle enough, but I felt like there was never even the pretence of resell value or "investing". But that they were more like wealth flex fashion items.
Maybe things go a little faster now, but doesn't seem too different from Pogs, or Beanie Babies or any other trend in a long line of them.
Labubus got extra kick from being gambling also. Many were sold in boxes without labels or with minimal labels that listed possible contents. That makes the actual product into more of a loot box kind of thing. That might have contributed to the speed of the trend passing.
I recently learned that many collectables are sold this way!
Labubus just happened to get a wide appeal and had a moment in the US for some reason..
They are and I hate it. It‘s bad enough with trading cards, but now every single collectible is employing gacha mechanics and it’s frustrating.
For eg Magic cards, a secondary market formed very quickly where you could buy exactly what you wanted.
"Everything is gambling now"
I think I heard it was a bit more than that - you'd buy them online direct, blind, and be informed immediately after purchase what it was you'd actually bought, so bringing in the immediacy and "convenience" of online gambling/gacha/etc. too, compared to ordering a mystery box and opening it when it was delivered, or buying foil packs of trading cards where you need to actually be present at a particular location.
So were pogs
beanie babies were rational, there was a supply constriction that seemed permanent, the founder resolved it and flooded the market, leaving bagholders and decades of mockery
but I would content it was not an example of irrational exuberance
labubu’s are part of a flooded market as well, but there was never anything to suggest it wouldnt be flooded only an expectation for demand to keep up longer than just half of this year
Beanie Babies were irrational because it is irrational to go into a collector craze over stuffed animals
> it’s clear that Labubus are on the downswing
On the other hand, they've only recently penetrated my greater social circle, so I'm not so certain as this author that the trend has ended.
The social commentary i’ve read is that some fast trends are made and followed by the “top trend makers”. Then they fade out in those circles, and dwindle to “common people”. But at that point, it’s not really cool or status symbol.
The way I understood is, if you’re hyper-online and very consumerist, you’ll want to onto the train fast, and get off it fast so you would be deemed as a “trend maker” rather than “trend follower”. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but it’s a bit more visible within Tokyo/Shanghai subcultures. It was less visible to me in Vancouver, where there’s a single main culture (everything outdoor and outdoor related) and not participating is also “not cool”.
> I’m not sure if I’m making sense,
Not sure how you could make sense when the topic it self is nonsensical?? Trying to rationalize internet fads just seems as futile as getting involved with the fad itself.
Isn't that the whole idea of hipsters? They existed far before online culture. And not much different to how teenagers have always rebelled against the traditional culture.
It's just been accelerated by the internet since something goes from being fairly obscure to being known by your grandma in 2 months now.
Feels like there's a contradiction in a piece that claims a fad is definitively over while simultaneously asserting the unknowability of our fragmented Internet culture.
Everything's decentralized, but at the same time, I have my finger on the pulse.
They have just started showing up in stores around me. I can believe they have fallen off social media feeds while still growing in sales silently as people get them to put on bags or gift rather than post on tiktok.
Most sales are made on the way down, that's the case for any trend.
Is your social circle also into Dimoo, or just Labubu?
Im not so sure, the big "fall" of labubus so far was for flippers and their profits, Popmart on the other hand has been selling more than ever with their restocks still selling out almost instantly.
Them being accessible and there being supply for much demand is having hit equilibrium. Give it another year or two before grave dancing. Many are still just only buying them now with them being accessible.
Adam Conover argued that the craze is an indicator of economic nihilism, that people who can’t afford these things buy them anyways as an expression of hopelessness that they’ll ever have a pathway to legitimately changing their station: https://youtu.be/l1O6bN2zWSM?si=QGd51tfmh8lOjezk
> The reality is that the internet has become decentralized; rather than people staying in one gigantic, unified group with shared trends and moments like they used to, users go their separate ways, with social media algorithms providing hyper-curated content that pushes users toward smaller groups with niche shared interests.
Huh, this feels exactly backwards. The web used to be WAY more decentralized.
Internet services have become centralized. Internet culture has fragmented, or really just disappeared entirely.
Being chronically online doesn't make you part of a special group anymore. It's just how everyone lives their lives. There are no inside jokes, no nerd lingo. Even memes are basically dead now.
I don't think this is true. There has been an explosive growth in cultures which are interest based rather than location based. Board games, furries, car people, kpop, etc. These groups all have their own inside jokes, terminology, events, etc.
What has been lost is gathering a random sample of people in the same city and them all being on roughly the same page about culture.
Feels like culture in general has become fragmented, or in other words, more personalized. It was said that Top 10 Hit Songs or Movies would be recognized by everyone because it'd be the only thing playing in radio. Now that everyone can have their own preferences, no more shared experiences.
If not a nerd lingo, there's absolutely inside jokes and new lingo. Skibidi, 6 7, blah blah. Even people saying things like "bet" are all part of new lingo that kids think is cool because the olds don't know what they are talking about. Only the words/phrases change, but the desire of kids doing something different than olds is never going to change.
> Even people saying things like "bet" are all part of new lingo
Maybe I'm just black, but there's absolutely nothing new about "bet." Unless you mean last 50 years new maybe (I can only vouch for 50 years.)
Still goes to your point, though. The kids are just imitating black people like their parents, their parents parents, and their parents parents parents, and their parents parents parents parents, and their parents parents parents parents parents. The desire of the kids to repeat things that they heard black people say is at least 150 years old at this point if the cakewalk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk) is a good spot to date it from.
I think "balkanized" is a better way to describe communities and users online. As in sorted and separated into non-overlapping algorithmic cul-de-sacs which mostly do not interact with each other and which are (often) hostile when members of one algorithmically isolated community happen upon members of another.
If you swap decentralized for personalized then the point about hyper-curated media bubbles do make sense. It feels backwards because it’s not how we use decentralized in the industry, it’s probably the same reason you correctly said web instead of internet.
OP is talking about culture rather than technology. Two people both on youtube see entirely different content. Both people will have their own set of big famous creators in their bubble and have never heard of the other persons famous youtubers.
I can see that, but to me it's more about the fact that there just didn't used to be that much content.
> Huh, this feels exactly backwards. The web used to be WAY more decentralized
I think you're referring to something different than the article
I agree with you the web used to be more decentralized in terms of unique websites, blogs, communities, etc. It is much more homogenous now, with majority of traffic and community forming on a few social networks instead of across hundreds of sites and forums
However, within the social media sites users have become much more siloed than they used to be. Algorithms are trying to isolate us into our own personal echo chambers rather than just giving us the raw feed and letting us navigate it
To be fair, the raw feed is absolute slop. If you ever look at youtube without an account or cookies, there's almost nothing worth watching. Youtube has become the biggest social media on the planet by showing people stuff they actually like rather than whats hot.
Youtube will show me an in depth technical video from 3 years ago over the latest MrBeast slop even if the MrBeast video is getting far better numbers.
I do feel like _something_ has been lost by the lack of monoculture though. It's been most evident in music where there almost is no pop music anymore. There is nothing everyone knows and generally likes. DJs either have to play highly targeted events or pop music from 2012.
Agreed on the last paragraph. When I grew up (long time ago), almost everyone saw the most recent <kids show> because there were only 3 or 4 on after school, and generally only one targeted towards each major peer group.
Sure, you can now choose from 27 different shows in each genre (comedy, drama, romance, business, cops, medical dramas, etc), each with many seasons to watch/stream/binge, but odds that your friend saw the same episode last night? Approximately zero. Whereas, "must see tv", as trite as it was, almost always gave you something to talk about the next day.. "No soup for you!" was huge in my circles for quite some time, for example.
And the less someone shares with you in terms of background, the easier it is to withdraw into your own bubble, and watch more shows alone, and become more isolated..
Labubus were always a cringeworthy fad, equivalent to the modern day beanie babies.
Zero value, fuelled and pushed by celebrities far and wide and they are not even rare to begin with.
Maybe I wasn't in the circle enough, but I felt like there was never even the pretence of resell value or "investing". But that they were more like wealth flex fashion items.
But what if a beanie baby was also a random drop? Then they'd be faddish and addictive!
I hope some future society is almost unanimously appalled at what we today treat as "normal" for advertising and gambling dark-patterns.