There's no such thing as cool any more thanks to Instagram

The last time I went shopping, I mean actual shopping, rather than online trawling – which I do far too often to ever hope for a healthy bank balance; real, live shopping where you walk into stores and try things on, I felt like I'd seen everything before.

These gold sunnies. Hmph, isn't half of Instagram wearing those? Sure, they're awesome and they only just came out but too many people have them now, so cross them off the list. The swimmers everyone is craving, the It bags everyone wants, the must-have trainers all the fashion bloggers are sporting, the towels people are carrying to the beach, the plants people are buying for their houses … suddenly, we all know what the item du jour is. Just by following social media we've been able to dress a certain way, follow the lifestyle trends and hang out at the right places. We are all in the inner circle, we all now know how to think, act, be, dress and play to be a part of the popular group.

But is that cool any more, if everyone is doing it? Isn't that actually the opposite of what cool is?

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Because it doesn't seem to matter if you're not living large on the streets of Tokyo, Berlin or London where the street set used to get snapped by people known as "cool hunters", whose job it was to bring underground trends to the masses (yes, that was an actual job). Now we're all cool hunters. We can just follow the people who set trends on Insta or Snapchat and get a bird's eye view of all that is cool and covetable. You don't have to hang out with the world's most amazing DJ/hottest model/most incredible fashion designer. You can follow them and know what they're wearing, where they're going, who they're listening to. Better still, you can wait for the top trends to be interpreted by your favourite fashion bloggers and just buy what she's wearing in her latest outfit post. Score!

When Kate Moss famously got thrown off a plane for being rowdy, she called the airline host a "basic bitch". Basic is the term people who are "ultimately beyond cool" label others who blindly follow trends. So if you like Gucci because it's a designer label and it's supposed to be awesome, you're basic. Nasty, right?

Maybe it's why Moss has never started a public Instagram account and has never gotten in on the whole social media trend. Maybe there is merit to keeping some things to yourself, instead of showing off every outfit/meal/holiday you're obviously excited about.

Brains are funny things. They can spot something they like and register it, but if they see it too many times, well, they'll start to turn off it. Get bored. Become a tad jaded by the object. It's why trends work so well in fashion. They're in, everyone loves them for a few years (if they're good) and then something else comes along that catches our attention and it becomes our new obsession.

At the rate we're going now, with social media's influence on what is cool and what to buy, it looks like we'll be turning over trends at a much faster rate than ever before. Ready for the fast lane?

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Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing well those you hold. keep your friends close,but your enemies closer.