Hypes: Popular…for a month

Just a few weeks ago, students logging into Facebook, or any other social networking site,  would face an onslaught of posts about the popular movie, “The Hunger Games.” For the next few days, this continuous stream of excitement over the movie would only gain momentum. But all of a sudden, it disappeared. Soon enough, interest over “Avengers” came to replace it; thus, the cycle of hypes continues. 

Due to constant attention to the media and ongoing improvements to social media networks, anything and everything has the potential to become insanely popular very quickly. A hype is essentially anything that gains popularity throughout the web very quickly, but dies out after a while. 

The speed at which they spread allows the hype to drag people into it. Even if one tries to avoid hypes, they cannot because of their prominence in media and society. As a result, hypes are far too prominent and ideally they would be slower in spreading. 

Hypes usually start off unnoticed, but something makes them enjoyable, thus alluring people into participating and sharing it with everyone else. 

“A hype gains momentum because it’s attracting to people,” says sophomore Grant Wang. “As friends of these people see them, they want to join in and this is how hype gets started. How the creators of an item market it will greatly affect if it will become a hype. A better marketed product will create a trend.”

Hypes are the result of people wanting to fit in and share the same experiences as everyone else. 

“People want to keep up with the latest stuff, so we don’t look like we’re out of the zone,” said freshman Catherine Cheng. 

Wang agrees with this view. 

“Hypes occur when the object or item becomes popular with a small group at first due to pure enjoyment, but after awhile, people jump on the bandwagon  just to follow everyone else,” said Wang.

One hype that faced various criticisms was KONY 2012, a video that sought to raise awareness about African children being forced to fight, because it seemed as if no one cared about the children before the video and people had a lack of knowledge. 

Sophomore Alex Renda said, “[People are] seeing too little of [some hypes] to have an actual informed opinion.”

Hypes have a tendency to die out after a certain amount of time. Sometimes it is the result of people being tired of a hype; other times it is the result of a new hype simply replacing it. As the new hypes comes along, people will all jump on the bandwagon and follow the new trend. 

“Hypes die out when people get bored or if it doesn’t live up to expectations,” said junior Edward Yang.

New hypes come in and replace old ones at an alarming rate. 

“Hypes die out because something new always comes along; the bandwagon changes. A hype also depends greatly on the timing and environment the thing happened to be created during. If the current environment allows for a trend then it becomes a hype but as the environment changes, the hype also dies out,” said Wang. 

As a result of hypes popping up so often, many people dislike hypes and refuse to join in. 

However, some subjects retain a fanbase for extended periods of time rather than dying out. Therefore, they are not hypes and people consider them to be truly popular. For example, the “Harry Potter” series has retained popularity despite its ending, thanks to a loyal fanbase. 

“If the subject appeals to a wide variety of people, then the fanbase will naturally be bigger and more healthy,” said sophomore Jason Kao.