Recently on the internet, there’s been a huge need to be different, not like everyone else, or niche. Whether it’s from having the most random Spotify Top 5 or the weirdest hobbies, the idea of being different and hyperindividualistic beliefs is spreading all across the internet. People’s desire to be niche may be driven by microtrends and an increasing hyperindividualism, leading to performative values as people fear holding mainstream ideas.
Most of the time, people who try to be niche often adopt unique aesthetics, highly specific interests, and certain behaviours to set themselves apart from everyone else. This can be seen everywhere, from certain hobbies to even food. For example, in 2024, a small group of people on Reddit created the term “disgustingly educated,” in which people became educated on certain topics: not for school or work, but to be more knowledgeable and to build self-improvement. It started well, with people being educated on self-help and certain topics for enjoyment and to learn more about themselves. It quickly became much worse once it became mainstream. People started silently competing with others online by being educated on lesser-known topics or just researching much more. Eventually, the term “disgustingly educated” became a more mainstream idea seen throughout TikTok, and people started silently competing on how much knowledge they had or how specific and unique the topics they educated themselves on were. Consequently, people started deeply educating themselves on irrelevant and smaller topics that were, honestly, just not as important compared to much larger global issues. The idea of being “disgustingly educated” went from being a way for self-help to just a competition on how much useless information your mind had space for. This is a great example showing how the need to be different causes many of these ideas initially practiced for good intent to be ruined into a competition on who can be the most different.
As we saw from the previous example, the moment people realized they were all doing the same thing, others tried to be different and more niche. This can also correlate with hyperindividualism becoming much more of a trend. For those who don’t know, Individualism is focusing on one’s own values, rather than the collective community’s. At its core, it celebrates personal freedom. However, hyperindividualism stresses that personal satisfaction comes from being disconnected from others. This mentality, which has been facilitated by the internet in recent times, is what is causing people’s desire to be niche, resulting in extremely performative values. This idea that we need to be different from everyone else is what’s causing microtrends throughout the internet. People complain that trends aren’t as big as they used to be in previous years, but the reason for this is that people fear being ordinary or similar to others. This is also why, as soon as a small trend even becomes somewhat big, it crashes down, and a new niche interest starts racking up followers.
After seeing how long hyper-individualistic beliefs and microtrends have been lasting, one might wonder how to fix something so confusing. The reality is quite simple: The entire niche epidemic can be solved simply by being yourself. Our planet has over 7 billion people, and the chance that you and someone else naturally have the same likes, ideas, hobbies, and beliefs is nearly zero. Our planet has so much diversity, whether it be your beliefs and ideas, or even small things like how you like your pizza, everyone is different already. Trying to be different and niche can eventually lead to problems with self-identity and not knowing who you even are due to having so many performative traits and hobbies that you don’t even know what you like anymore. There’s no need to go out of your way and try to be more different. There’s no harm in liking things that others like or having similar styles- that’s why they’re popular.
People trying to be more and more niche is a trend that becomes harder to do and more obvious as time goes on. So put down the book covering the history of coal, stop scouring Soundcloud for rappers with less than 100 followers, and just be yourself and enjoy what you like.
