Pop Culture Norms Becoming a Little Too Normal

I am young. I am only twenty two, so I grew up with social media being my main source of influence of pop culture. Although I have found myself falling in the rabbit whole of comparing myself to others on the internet, there has always been a conscious effort to not let social media norms consume my identity. It is interesting how it has changed throughout the years and how as much as I think I am in the loop and up to date on what the "kids are saying and doing these days" the stubbornness to not let pop culture change my verbiage and actions have kept me out of loop on some trends. 

There are girls on my team that say "yes queen" "you go queen" "my queen" to just about anyone and anything. There are girls that completely identify and justify themselves and actions solely based on what their zodiac sign is and what phase the moon is in. I am not saying that either are poor actions or that they should not be participating in them, my only question is are we becoming what we are seeing on these social media platforms? Are we becoming live action Tiktok's and speaking in the dialogue of comments on our best friends Instagram posts? 

The worst part of how consuming pop culture is, that may differ from others that are older than me, I grew up with social media dominating the pop culture platform. My reality ever since I was in middle school has been a never ended scroll of pretty girls with perfect bodies, hair, skin, and teeth. After typing that sentence I just now realized how powerful pop culture really is. My idea of those perfect standards are because of pop culture. 

The definition of pop culture is everyday objects and actions that influence people to behave in a certain way. That is all done through subtle messages proposing what is desirable, undesirable, good or bad, etc.  It is interesting to see how over time the standard of beauty has changed just as "slang" has. If you are not familiar with TikTok it is a platform that you basically see random videos on a page that is called "For You." There is always videos about how TikTok's algorithm tends to show higher quality videos, in a nice place, and the better your appearance is, the more likely you are to become viral. Are these those "subtle" messages proposing what is desirable? Lets just say every TikTok star I have seen embodies those norms and beauty standards that society has deemed "perfect". 

My question to everyone is did anyone else grow up/ going through the same struggles of the toxicity of social media or have similar experience? Are pop culture norms becoming a little too normal?  (For example in ten years from now your zodiac sign is still an excuse to act in a certain way? Will "yes queen" be a term used only by those in the royal family?)