Hydration Is A Trend On TikTok. What The Hell.
I think I’m getting too old for this.
I took part in a company brainstorm the other day. They had invited all the youths to share what activities were trending so they could improve on their upcoming event.
I’m not even remotely close to being a Gen Z, so don’t ask me why I was still invited.
I wasn’t the only one feeling out of place though.
Colleague: ”I’m so old, I shouldn’t be here.”
30-year-old me: “How old are you?”
Colleague: ”I’m 28.”
Me: *cries in millennial*
The only saving grace was that I watch loads of TikTok in my spare time in order to stay relevant in my industry (public relations).
So that helped me feel a little more like I belonged as they talked about girl math, permanent jewellery and AI raves.
But I had to do a double take when the Gen Z girl next to me suddenly spouted this interesting fact:
“So we all know hydration is a trend…”
Hold up, what?
“…People are taking more importance in staying hydrated and love getting bottles like Owala and Stanley…” she continued.
I had to mentally confirm that Stanley was a bottle brand, not a person and check how Owala was spelt on my phone under the table.
People really did see hydration as a trend and created tonnes of content about it.
A slightly more thorough TikTok search after the meeting showed that drinking water really was trending. Except people weren’t chugging from a regular old 1-litre sports water bottle like me.
Fashionistas were toting trendy colour-blocked bottles that matched their outfits. Crafty DIYers and the home cooks of TikTok were creating flavoured water recipes. And the hashtag #EmotionalSupportWaterBottle had amassed over 300,000,000 views.
I asked one of my Gen Z friends who works as a social media manager about this over lunch.
Friend: Yeah it’s true. People really do see hydration as a trend, and there are a lot of people getting into it, getting water bottles, talking about drinking water and stuff.
Friend’s boyfriend: Is water not, like, a basic necessity..?
Me: That’s what I thought!
I remembered then that last year, I had a conversation with a girl who joined my friends for dinner and saw my water bottle on the table.
She asked me where I got it from, if I really drank that much daily, if I had a water goal, if drinking this much water created a noticeable difference in my life, and so on. It was a full fifteen-minute conversation dedicated to just water.
That was one of the hints that hydration was trending even back then, but I didn’t realise it.
Of all things that could possibly trend, why water?
My mind was whirling. Companies around the world have trouble getting Gen Z to talk about their new, innovative and exciting products, and here people were kicking up a storm about drinking water?!
Why it was hydration in particular, I’ll never know for sure, but maybe it could be attributed to:
- Gen Z entering the adulting phase and paying more attention to health.
- How it’s normal to hype up mundane things on TikTok — ever watched those Get Ready With Me routines or Sunday reset videos where they’re basically just doing chores around the house?
- Gadgets that enable making drinking water (a boring pain point) exciting again. I hear flavoured syrups are actually getting tastier these days and that there’s even a bottle that infuses scent into the water.
- Many other factors, but it boils my brain to think about it too hard.
But if I had to choose, I’d rather have something wholesome go viral than something ratchet.
As much as my head hurts thinking about this all, I do appreciate how TikTok, together with Gen Z, have the superpower of creating trends.
Thanks to them:
- Great and under appreciated songs from the past suddenly became popular bangers again.
- Reading became a mainstream hobby that’s not just for nerds through #booktok.
- And scripts that help you stand up for yourself in the workplace, set boundaries with imposing colleagues or negotiate reasonable salaries for yourself all became common knowledge through career influencers online.
So there’s quite a bit of good and wholesome stuff that comes out of social media sometimes.
Still, I firmly believe we shouldn’t have to rely on social media to be enthusiastic about a basic need.
But if the trend of hydration is what floats people’s boats, I’m not one to put a damper on that.
