Newsroom Diaries 2016: From 'Pineapple Apple Pen' to the 'hot chaiwalla', what trended on social media this year

The year 2016 was an action-packed year: From sports to politics to entertainment and business, the year was full of “breaking news”. Obviously, social media had its fair share of trends too. It didn’t just give us hashtags, it gave us stories to go along with them. There were all kinds of trends this year. Boring, bizarre, sensational, and there was no way one could ignore them. Did these trends defy logic at times? Certainly.

Did these trends ’take down’ celebrities on occasion? Sure.

Did it involve drooling over a pretty face? Don’t get me started!

Before this year ends, it’s important to take a look back at all the times social media gave us a chance to laugh, a chance to cry, a chance to rant and a chance to make a change. Shared a million times over, an image of a Syrian boy covered in dust and blood came out as a reminder of the horror and trauma thousands of people, especially children, face due to the Syrian civil war. What does social media do, you ask? It reminds us of the brutal violence the world continues to face. Sometime in September this year, a Korean guy decided to make a jingle out of fruits and stationery and call it ‘Pen Pineapple Apple Pen’. His infectious dance moves took over the internet, and in no time at all, became a viral sensation. What can social media do, you ask? It can make a billion people laugh and have a global ripple effect. With October came a different season, and with it appeared the “hot” picture of a Pakistani tea-seller. This was the birth of #hotchaiwalla. Little did we know the trend would go on to open up several avenues for Arshad Khan. What can social media do, you ask? It can change people’s lives. This year we also had the Mannequin Challenge. The trend compelled Michelle Obama to take the challenge and boy, did she ace it! What can social media do, you ask? Well, it can definitely reach the White House. More Change.org petitions in 2017, maybe? A star couple’s son trended on social media before he turned even a day old. While Apple was pricing its products such that most people would have to sell their kidneys to be able to afford them, social media was busy making memes on the subject. Social media trended with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton almost everyday. When Trump triumphed, it opened up a Pandora’s box of memes. There was no way else we could have coped with the shock. We blame social media for idiocy, fake news, bizarre stories, silly content — but aren’t we creating that very content? Working on the social media desk at Firstpost made me realise that we millennials like what we see. We like setting trends. We also like following those trends. We do not have patience. We definitely love Facebook, but we’re always on Twitter. We like Instagram, but hey, Snapchat had the story feature first! Social media is growing. It’s still not a ‘beat’ in journalism. But the fact that 2016 gave us so many stories — half of which I cannot even list — I could tell you that 2017 might change its fate. 2016 had it all, but 2017, I’d be lying if I said I am not expecting more.