What’s a Recession Indicator?
Let’s first define recession: “A period of significantly reduced general economic activity that is marked especially by declines in employment and production and that lasts more than a few months.” One could argue we’re actively in a recession, what with the newfound tariffs hiking up the prices of goods and services internationally, households unable to afford groceries, tradwife conservatism aesthetics sneaking back into the fashion cycle, and the body positivity movement taking a back seat for Ozempic-adjacent physiques. Not everything is directly indicative of a recession because trend cycles are literally cyclical, but if you squint hard enough, there’s a correlation between everything. Are these recession indicators or are we simply in a recession and these things happen to be back in style?
meetmebehindwendys via Reddit
Recession Era Walk-Through
Hop in the time machine and travel back to the years preceding the Great Depression. Prior to its hit, 1920s women ditched their long locks and opted for micro bangs and an immovable bob. Flapper dresses had much shorter hemlines, prohibition failed drastically, and everyone everywhere was practicing what it meant to be a hedonist. There was a sense of promiscuity, individuality, and free-spiritedness in the air that felt permanent. Life in excess was innate at this point, but like all good things, it couldn’t last forever. During the decades of the Great Depression, there was a return to nuclear family values, conservatism in both fashion and ideology, and promises of economic prosperity ensued. That is, until the next economic collapse.
years_in_photos via Instagram
Now, let’s look at the early aughts. Congrats! You survived Y2K and the internet didn’t explode. Pop icon Britney Spears was there to meet you on the other side as a guardian angel and the face of 2000s fashion. Low-rise skinny jeans and whale tails were not a want, but a need—the inseams of apple bottom jeans were approximately three inches, and all was well in the world.
A trend cycle that did not align with the pre-Depression era trends was the early 2000s’ conventional body standard. “Heroin chic” was the ideal bodily physique and Kate Moss was the queen. Yellow-hued bleach-blonde was born out of the early aughts, but chemical bleach baths and flat iron-fried tresses with grown-out roots indicated something sinister was coming… Cue the Great Recession. And, well, you know the rest...
definechique via Instagram
Welcome back to the present—as you look around, you’re probably unhappy to be here. In the same vein as 1929 and late 2007, folks are realizing that trends are, in fact, cyclical. Whether we like to admit it or not, the culture we interact with and take part in feigns permanence. Recession indicators, in a literal sense, focus on GDP drops and unemployment rates. However, 21st-century social media allows users to examine the social and cultural effects of an impending recession or any other major historical event. Instead of taking a look at quantitative metrics and losing our minds about it, users take to the internet to flippantly analyze the nature of pre and post-recession cultural behavior, and it gets funnier as the days go on.
2025 Trends, Patterns, and Indicators
Speaking of recession indicators—here’s an in-depth look into some trends social media users online swear are indicative of yet another dark period for America’s economy.
Recession Hair
alexandrasileshair via TikTok
While some are ditching their golden locks for “recession brunette,” others are taking a page out of the Y2K playbook and going back to their bottle blonde roots. Nobody has the money to shell out hundreds of dollars in blonde hair maintenance every four weeks anymore. So folks on social media choose to sensationalize the tresses because, well, what else is there to do?
Instead of toner, ladies are choosing to get multiple uses out of their belongings and opt for purple watercolor instead of violet shampoo. Desperate times call for desperate measures!
Side Hustle Culture aka a Second Job
PSA: Working a full-time job and collecting side hustles like Pokémon isn’t normal—one should be enough. Passive income is one thing, but clocking in at 7 AM on Saturdays and Sundays and clocking out when the sun goes down is a second job. The normalization of side hustle culture is definitely a recession indicator.
andyhafell via TikTok
A Return to Conservatism (In Every Sense of the Word)
The departure from the prior collective rejection of gender stereotypes is in full swing. Tradwife culture has many sociological ties to conservatism because of conservatism’s “traditional values.” Embracing old-timey gender roles with little reluctance feels like we’re unwriting all progressive progress women and LGBTQ+ people have crusaded for. To each their own, I guess… But marketing the lifestyle to an egregious extent begs the question: Is this coming back in 2025 a coincidence or is it indicative of a likely major recession?
naraazizasmith via TikTok
Tradwife content creators, most popularly Nara Smith and Ballerina Farms on TikTok, embrace the “slow life” of homesteading, cooking, and only wearing dresses. Femininity is returning to a black-and-white definition of cooking for the husband that calls you his “Ol’ ball and chain” and existing as a matriarch first and foremost. In some ways, this feels like a step backwards...
A Departure From Body Positivity
Chronically online folk know about the dark corner of TikTok known as “Skinnytok,” where people not only push unhealthy eating agendas but also embrace those who make themselves sick as a result of it. “Skinnytok” as it exists as an algorithm isn’t the only part of the internet that pushes this content—it’s everywhere. It’s in the Her’s diet medication ad during the 2025 Super Bowl, it’s in the tradwife content that urges you to be smaller and softer, but most of all, it’s literally everywhere else. Aside from this, being unable to afford food for yourself and your household might bring you to this point without even trying…
Due to tradwife ideals, thinness and femininity have close ties to one another, and because of this, they also hold ties to conservative ideals through tradwife ideals. This would not be an issue if two ideologies could coexist, but another recession indicator is the complete erasure of opposing ideals. Return to the collective, return to what is considered “safe.”
Even still, when the ship is sinking, we make memes and only sweat the small stuff because if we even look at the big stuff, our heads will explode.
funnyhoodvidz via Instagram
@heyaimsara via X
@whotfisjovana via X
@whotfisjovana via X
Social Media’s Impact: A Collective Consciousness
Everyone’s a comedian when times get tough—this is an observational fact. During the Great Depression and the Recession, social media either didn’t exist at all or, at least, in the monolithic way it does today. However, the 1920s made space for political newspaper comics and talkies to laugh the pain away, just as we are right now.
Younger folks are beginning to dominate these platforms; 13-year-olds are suddenly aware of the strife that results directly from major economic collapse. They’re not just worried about their crush liking them back anymore. Millennials and Gen Xers are choosing to doomscroll memes online because they’ve been through this before, and dissociating is easier than facing what’s going on. In a messed-up way, humans have never been more connected. Everyone is in the same boat and connecting through humor is the only way to blow off some steam. Even if we decide that nothing matters, at least we have memes to laugh at.
