It was YOLO.

Then Ice Bucket Challenge.

Then Planking.

Then Netflix and Chill.

Then “What are thooooossseee?”

Then Harambe.

Now clowns.

It’s candy crush, selfies, the snapchat dog filter, and keep calm memes.

It’s all of the fads that consume social media for a month before fading into dust, just in time for something else to take it’s place.

We live in a technology-driven culture; this is not news. We also live in a place where people yearn to belong, and no matter how much we stress that being unique is quite okay, there will always be the biggest crowd trying to fit the cookie-cutter model of this week’s popular trend.

There is nothing wrong with participating in the latest and greatest on social media. It’s not about not enjoying the generally really comedic things that people come up with.

It’s about recognizing the impact, and recognizing what else can be done with that.

If we have the power to make videos of people dumping ice cold water over their heads or planking on a park bench be viewed by millions of people, then we no doubt have the power to create change in other places.

So maybe we can start trending that Black Lives Matter. That humans are humans and there should never be a division on humanity on the basis of color. That no one person stands above another in this world because of things they are born with.

So maybe we can start trending that the LGBTQ community matters. That there should never be a division of humanity on the basis of who we choose to love. That all love matters in all of it’s forms in all places.

So maybe we can start trending that mental health matters. That there are people who silently struggle every single day in the worst of ways, and they need to be taken seriously. They need people to tell them that it’s okay to not be okay sometimes, and to mean it.

So maybe we can start trending opportunities to give. To fight cancer and diseases that take the people we love away from us long before we are ready. To give what we have for the chance that someday, someone might be able to hold on to their Mom or Dad or child a little longer because there is a cure.

So maybe fads are just the accumulation of the most powerful force on earth: people.

So maybe we can do something with that power.