Top Social Media Trends of 2023: Roman Empire, Grimace Shake, Keith Lee and More

Algorithms are getting good, alarmingly so, at feeding you content targeted to your weird and wonderful and even secret interests. Still, a lot of interesting stories end up falling outside our digital castle walls. This list is an attempt to rectify that, revisiting the people, trends, feuds and frenzies that took off on social media platforms in 2023 but might not have broken into your personal World Wide Web.

Did you see the olive oil executive trying to start beef with another olive oil executive on LinkedIn? How about the woman who gets paid thousands of dollars by pretending to be a video game character? Or the young Texan who is facing prison time after his lavish wedding blew up on TikTok? We’ve got you covered.

The Inexplicable

Hail, Caesar?

Find a man, any man, and ask him how often he thinks about the Roman Empire. According to TikTok, the answer is at least once a day. Viral videos on the platform inspired a “Saturday Night Live” sketch in November. “The Roman Empire, Ancient Rome,” rapped the episode’s guest host, Jason Momoa. “Five times a day, it pops into my dome.”

Don’t Call It a Snack

Girl Dinner was a big summertime TikTok trend. A number of people — mostly young women, as the name implies — showed off nicely arranged plates comprising a bit of this (cheese), a bit of that (bread, maybe) and a few other things (pickle spear, nuts, salami slice). Proponents said the trend freed them from the tyranny of traditional dinner. Detractors claimed it glorified eating disorders.

A Yassified Barney

After Barney the purple dinosaur got a makeover in February, baffled fans filled the internet with talk of the character’s new teeth, brighter purple skin, larger eyes and perhaps even a bit of rhinoplasty. (Make that dinoplasty. I’ll be here all article.)