Researcher Explains Why Online 'Trends' Often Mislead Us
NYU media theorist Ruby Thelot argues that virality no longer signals real cultural significance, since people now live in isolated 'digital islands.' He also discusses prediction markets and the myth of dating burnout.
Cyber-ethnographer and NYU researcher Ruby Thelot argues that the way we interpret online trends has become outdated. He explains that virality used to be a useful signal of genuine public interest, but it has since become a target in itself — content creators now chase view counts without regard for whether their work has any lasting cultural value.
According to Thelot, the internet has fragmented into separate 'digital islands,' meaning much of what appears to go viral is actually just force-fed to users by algorithms rather than spreading organically across a broad audience. As a result, many apparent trends fade as quickly as they emerge — much like the earlier hype cycles around NFTs or the app Clubhouse.
The dating burnout myth
Thelot also examined so-called 'heteropessimism' — women's frustration with dating men, a narrative that has circulated since 2019. Analyzing roughly 1,000 social media videos with over a million views each, his research found that only about 25 percent of the content was actually negative in tone, suggesting the topic may be overblown by culture writers.
Prediction markets as a sense of belonging
Discussing the growing popularity of prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket, where young people bet on everything from entertainment to natural disasters, Thelot draws a parallel to meme coin trading in recent years. His research found that such betting often happens within group chats, functioning as a form of male bonding rather than being primarily about financial gain — what matters most, he says, is the feeling of closeness to the events being wagered on.
On artificial intelligence
Thelot also pushes back against the idea that AI poses an existential threat, arguing that most global problems stem not from a lack of intelligence but from failures of cooperation and shared goals. He warns that overvaluing intelligence as a metric risks neglecting other human capacities, such as emotional and artistic intelligence.
