The 2025-2026 school year is now coming to an end, and like always, many trends came about on social media that made their way to our school. Freshman year is a time that is very memorable for most. So let’s take a look back at this year’s pop culture and trends, but from the perspective of the class of 2029.
This list would be incomplete if we didn’t start by noting that the most used saying of the 2025-2026 school year was “6-7.” It was even dictionary.com’s Word of the Year. People started using the phrase after rapper Skrilla released his song “Doot Doot (6 7),” which included lyrics referencing a basketball player’s height.
“I had to be physically held down to keep me from just spamming, saying 6-7,” freshman Lily Grace Heskett said.
At the start of the school year, a new sports celebration emerged called the “scuba.” People plug their nose and make a squiggly motion with their hand. Students then started randomly doing it throughout the day.
“I use it as a double celebration in baseball,” freshman Chase Brantley said.
In February, fidgets made a comeback due to the popularity of the “glitter dumpling.” People would unbox dumpling shaped squishies on Tiktok, trying to get the rare glitter dumpling.
Once everybody started buying the dumplings, people seemed to remember how much they love squishies. Now many students carry around a Needoh or some other kind of squishy in their bag to play with while in school.
As for popular fashion, many girls were wearing Parke sweatshirts this year. The sweatshirts are exclusive and almost impossible to get the exact one you want due to the merchandise drops being limited and fast sell-outs.
“The drop was very stressful. I had me, my mom, my sister and my grandma trying to get it for me,” freshman Avery Duke said.
Two other fashion trends also saw a comeback this year, polka dots and denim. Many students now use polka dot designs for phone cases, backgrounds, and clothing. Although arguably always a classic, more students have begun wearing jeans and denim skirts instead of athleisure wear.
“I love polka dots! I also definitely saw more people wearing denim this year than last, myself included,” freshman Ella O’Toole said.
As for shows and movies of the year, the hit show “Stranger Things” came to an end. The much-debated finale season took over social media feeds and was a common topic of conversation among students.
A movie that was popular was “Wicked: For Good.” The second and final installment of the “Wicked” movie franchise blew up and instantly reached the number one spot in the box office on opening weekend. Deep Run students contributed to the popularity and went to the theaters to see it.
“It was different than I expected and very long. It also didn’t really feel like the same vibe as the first one, but I did have fun watching it,” freshman Charlotte Sedwick said.
Another movie of the year was “Zombies 4.” The Disney movie got popular due to a fun soundtrack and a popular cast. Disney organized a world tour with the cast along with the cast of another Disney movie. The tour was called the “Worlds Collide” tour and clips of it sprang up all over the internet.
“Even though it was for little kids, it was still super fun,” said freshman Kinsley Hart, who attended the tour.
As for online trends and memes, singer-songwriter Sophia James took over the internet by releasing a series of videos putting people in “groups.” Whichever video people saw first was the group they were a part of. A majority of people happened to be put in “Group 7,” and it became a joke.
Around Halloween time, the Louvre got robbed, making international news. The robbery became a viral social media meme and many people were poking fun at how easy it seemed.
Finally for internet jokes, a trend popped up where guys were wearing quarter zips to show “maturity.” The new style was instantly called out by girls for being performative.
“Everybody at school was wearing quarter zips and trying to be performative,” freshman Ashleigh Myers said.
Reflecting on this year, freshmen had a ton of popular trends that the class participated in. These trends were impactful on the behaviors of students and even though they will eventually die out, they will be nostalgic to look back on once the Class of 2029 is long gone from the halls of school.
