Top Social Media Trends: 2025 can surely be crowned as the year of trends. As soon as the Labubu craze ended, aura-farming took over, and after that came the AI Nano Banana trend. Now that the year is about to end, trends still don’t seem to be slowing down, especially with AI cat videos going viral.
Let’s take a look back at trends that ruled the hearts of influencers, creators, and everyone else this year.
Labubu Trend: Evil-Looking Ugly Doll, Strangely Loved By Many
The trend caught on like wildfire in the early months of 2025 when celebrities like Rihanna and Lisa from Blackpink were spotted with these elf-looking dolls. These evil-looking plush dolls were designed by Hong Kong illustrator Kasing Lung and mass-produced by a company named Pop Mart. Though the trend originally started in 2024, it reached Asia in 2025, and people across India began buying these dolls.
The craze was so intense that people in Melbourne, Australia, stood in lines just to buy these devilish-looking dolls. As per many sites, Labubu is priced around Rs 5,000, although you can find it for much cheaper in local markets in India now.
The trend finally took its last breath in mid-2025 when people began feeling weird negative energy surrounding the doll. One such case that went viral was when Indian comedian Bharti Singh burned her son’s Labubu.
AI Image Trend: Wear Saree, Catch Up With Celebs, & Everything In Between
AI images took over the Internet by storm this year. The Nano Banana trend is the one that really stayed among us all. Almost everyone has been a part of it or has at least seen it. Turning boring photos into something fun, wearing sarees, trying different art styles, and whatnot. For those unaware, Nano Banana is an image generator model that comes bundled with Google Gemini. This tool was made available for free to all Gemini users, which prompted the viral trend.
Before Nano Banana came the Ghibli trend, where people used ChatGPT to turn their photos into cute Japanese-style art inspired by Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. Although the trend spread like wildfire, it also received heavy criticism. Many came forward to boycott the art, including Miyazaki himself, who previously called AI animation “an insult to life itself.”
After Ghibli, Nano Banana entered and became a huge hit. People worldwide joined the trend, whether it was the Gemini Saree trend or the pre-wedding shoot trend. This AI wave also invited criticism as many experts warned that Gemini might use user data to train the AI, but people didn’t care much, and the trend is still somewhat relevant.
Saiyaara Trend: “Saiyaara Tu Toh Badla Nhi Hai…”
This didn’t initially start as a trend; it can be described more as a peer-pressure-gone-viral. The movie Saiyaara was not promoted like a big-budget film, but the craze started when a few Reels of people crying began circulating. The Reels showed everything, from sobbing to singing the movie’s songs like a heartbroken lover in theatres.
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These reels made people curious about what exactly the movie was and why it was making so many viewers emotional. Eventually, the song Saiyaara went viral as people started making all kinds of videos on it. While some showcased their acting skills, others gave the song a comedic twist.
Aura-Farming: Young Black & Rich
The term “Aura Farming” comes from an 11-year-old kid named Rayyan Arkan Dikha from Indonesia. Dikha stood in front of a traditional longboat during the Pacu Jalur race, doing confident anime-style energy poses and arm waves. His effortless cool personality and charismatic nature made him the Tourism Ambassador for the Riau Province.
Dikha is the reason people started talking again about the traditional Pacu Jalur race. The trend is still somewhat active, with the term “aura-farming” being used all over Instagram.
The trend gained even more attention when, during the Nepal Gen Z protest, someone stood on top of a burning building and did the same aura-farming steps.
Nicki Minaj Challenge: ‘High School’ Became A Trend Again
A challenge that awakened the inner Nicki Minaj in countless women. The challenge was inspired by a clip from Nicki Minaj’s 2013 music video High School, where she squats in stilettos with one leg crossed over the other.
The same pose was replicated by many users on Instagram, and it went insanely viral. While some women were just posing, others shared deeper messages through the trend.
One viral reel featured a woman in a traditional Indian outfit, with a camera on the shelf, laptop in hand, and sipping something from a cup, seemingly depicting how women are managing life while juggling chaos from all sides.
AI Cat Videos: Meow, Meow, Meow…
Now comes the trend that even turned cat haters into feline lovers. Instagram is currently overflowing with realistic-looking cats doing all sorts of things: playing banjo, working corporate jobs, dancing, cooking, and more. These videos truly ruled the internet, and cat lovers simply cannot get enough of them.
Most of these videos are created using Sora 2, a media generation tool from OpenAI. The tool allows creators to make realistic-looking videos that can hook viewers in just seconds.
All in all, these trends made the year fun. After all the mishaps that happened in 2025, trends like these made the year bearable and kept Indians busy with new trends coming every other week.
