Reflecting on the past year in pop culture feels a bit like repeatedly bashing yourself over the head with a blunt object. In a social media trend cycle that moves at lightning speed, it’s difficult to fathom that the Coldplay Kiss Cam scandal, Katy Perry blasting off to space and the advent of the inexplicably nonsensical 6-7 meme all happened in the same 12 months. But yes — checks notes — they really did.
In 2025, social media became a truly horrifying place to be, if it wasn’t already before. This was the year that the term “brainrot” and “rage-bait” became part of our daily vocabulary, and AI slop — another delightful new term — infected every corner of social media with its surrealist and sometimes believable false footage.
