Social media vs. Personal Style: A balance

In the age of social media, Instagram “must have” lists, YouTube hauls, TikTok shopping, fashion changes faster than ever, and with that, the pressure to keep up. Micro trends can be fun and exciting, but the feeling of regret towards the purchase almost always comes with these items. The balance is not to reject trends altogether, but to build a wardrobe that reflects you.

First off, we can start with what a trend or micro-trend. Micro-trends are trends that rise and fall within months or weeks. They sell fast but disappear faster. They are the pieces that social media can convince you to need.

Personal style, on the other hand, is your long-term fashion sense. The colors, silhouettes, and styles that you are drawn to. When you know your style, shopping becomes easier, your outfits feel more cohesive, and you stop buying pieces you only wear once.

Currently, not participating in a Micro-Trend can make someone feel like they are falling behind. Which is never what should be felt, Fashion should be the things that we wear and feel confident in, not what others tell us to wear. With social media, many feel the pressure to keep up, and suddenly, getting dressed becomes less about expressing yourself and more about proving you can keep up with the newest “must-have” pieces. Social media is convincing you that what you already own isn’t enough.

But in reality, fashion was never meant to be a race. Every scroll introduces a new standard, a new aesthetic, a new outfit to copy, or a new item that supposedly everyone needs. It’s an endless cycle of comparison, subtly convincing you that your wardrobe, and sometimes even your identity, can be falling behind. Social media had turned fashion into a mask for belonging. People start dressing for an audience instead of dressing for themselves, buying things for the person they think they should be, not the person they are.

Fashion is supposed to be for you. It is supposed to be a form of self-expression. We need to begin to slow down and hear our own voices again. Figure out who we want to be rather than who social media tells us to be. And when we figure that out, we will be able to realize that the most “in” fashion isn’t the one trending on TikTok, it’s the one that reflects who you are today.