If there was one defining feature of the internet in 2025, it was how quickly personal expression turned into global culture. From emotionally charged AI visuals to deceptively simple memes, this year’s viral trends revealed how technology, nostalgia, and identity collided online.
Here’s a closer look at the moments that truly shaped internet culture in 2025.
The year marked a turning point when platforms like ChatGPT introduced native image generation. Suddenly, creating stylised visuals no longer required artistic training or complex tools. With just a text prompt, users could generate illustrations, portraits and surreal scenarios in seconds.
What made this trend explode was accessibility. Creativity became democratised, and timelines were flooded with personalised, hyper-specific visuals that felt both playful and unsettlingly real.
One of the most visually striking trends saw people turning themselves into boxed action figures, complete with labels, accessories and toy-store aesthetics. Nicknamed the ‘nano banana’ trend, it was powered by Google Gemini image tools.
The results were uncanny. These figures looked close enough to real merchandise to spark conversations around self-branding, consumer identity and how we increasingly see ourselves as products in digital spaces.
Another deeply emotional trend involved users sharing images of themselves embracing their childhood versions. These moments never happened in real life, yet they resonated powerfully.
Soon, the trend expanded. AI was used to insert deceased parents and loved ones into wedding photos, birthdays and family portraits. For some, it felt like healing. For others, it raised ethical questions around consent and grief. Either way, the emotional impact was undeniable.
Away from AI, 2025 also proved that the internet knows how to fall in love with something tangible. Labubu, the wide-eyed designer toy created by Kasing Lung, became a global sensation.
Gen Z users turned Labubu into a lifestyle symbol, styling it with outfits, desk setups and travel reels. Limited editions sold out within minutes, resale prices soared, and celebrities joined the craze. What began as a collectable became a full-blown cultural moment.
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Matcha quietly but persistently dominated social media this year. Short-form videos of bright green drinks being whisked, poured and styled flooded Instagram and TikTok. Cafés leaned into the aesthetic, and matcha became less about health trends and more about ritual, calm and visual pleasure.
Perhaps the most unexpected viral moment was the rise of ‘67’, also known as ‘Six Seven’. Used as a reaction, a joke or a placeholder for confusion, the phrase spread rapidly across platforms.
Its charm lay in its ambiguity. Brands, creators and meme pages adopted it without explanation, turning ‘67’ into a symbol of internet absurdity and shared digital language.
Together, these trends showed how the internet in 2025 became more emotional, more visual and more self-aware. As the year comes to a close, it’s clear that viral moments are no longer just fleeting distractions; they’re reflections of how we imagine, remember and represent ourselves online.
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Image Courtesy: Instagram
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