The Silent Language of Sameness

on homogeny, connection and belonging

I’ve been thinking a lot about widespread homogeny: micro-trends, copy-and-paste culture, how trends spread, how ideas get replicated, and how individuality seems to have taken a backseat to sameness. It feels more pervasive than ever, but the more I sit with it, the more I wonder if it may be rooted in something deeper than just consumer behavior or the algorithm pushing what’s popular.

It can be easy to dismiss the rapid spread of trends as mindless imitation, but if we zoom out, it may really be about something much more human.

Looking back at my junior high and high school years, I remember the feeling of wanting something another girl had. Not because I necessarily desired it, but because it was a silent language. The same brand of jeans, wearing lip gloss, carrying a similar backpack (Jansport) or bag, socks pulled up below the knee with shell-toe Adidas, etc. These weren’t just things, they were shared points of reference, a way of saying, I get you, we’re similar. They were signals, saying…“I belong.”