 |
Slime is a homemade toy typically created using a combination of water, glue, and borax. Videos of people playing with slime became popular on social media in the mid-2010s, which made it an international trend.
| |
Slime is a homemade toy typically created using a combination of water, glue, and borax. Videos of people playing with slime became popular on social media in the mid-2010s, which made it an international trend.
Homemade slime is customarily made of water, PVA-based glue, and borax. The slime is created as a result of the borax linking the polymers in the glue together to create larger polymers. [1] Its recipe can vary based on the desired color, consistency, or scent of the slime; additions can include dyes or sequins. [2] [3] [4] Other recipes for slime include shampoo, soap, corn starch, body lotion, and shaving cream. [5] Variations of slime include glow-in-the-dark, fluffy, glitter, clear, cloud, and metallic. [6] In the United Kingdom, where, as of 2018 [update] , borax has been banned for its toxicity and potential to affect fertility, baking soda is a popular substitute. [7] A 2018 survey by British consumer association Which? , however, found that eight of the 11 slime products they tested contained more than the European Union's legal limit of 300mg/kg of boron. [8]
In 2014, Thai videos of pastel slime began being posted on Instagram. The Instagram accounts of Thai teenage girls posting videos of slime became popular globally in 2016, leading to it being known as "Thai slime". [9] The hashtag #slime also started to grow in usage in 2016 among "slimers", the Instagram community of slime makers. [3] Google searches for slime began to rise in the summer of 2016 and peaked in 2017, when slime became an international trend on social media, largely among young children. [7] [5]
By 2017 and 2018, videos of hands stretching and playing with slime trended and became a popular form of ASMR on Instagram and YouTube. [2] California-based YouTuber Karina Garcia, who has been credited with starting the social media trend of homemade slime and was called "a doyenne of the slime world" by Hannah Jane Parkinson of The Guardian , became known as the "slime queen" and gained over 7 million subscribers by 2018; [4] slime YouTubers such as Theresa Nguyen and ItsJustNick also gained millions of subscribers and earned thousands of dollars through sponsorships and advertisements on their videos. [7] Instagram began posting slime videos to its official account in 2018 along with captions about those running the accounts behind the videos. In 2020, Michelle Santiago Cortés of Refinery29 called slime "the biggest Instagram trend of the last decade". [3]
Prior to the rise of homemade slime in the 2010s, slime toys like Silly Putty, the Nickelodeon- and Mattel-manufactured Gak, and Floam had been brief trends. [3] Nickelodeon also began using a bright green and viscous kind of slime in their marketing and at the Kids' Choice Awards in the 1990s, though its makeup differs greatly from typical homemade slime. [4] [9]
In December 2016, following the increased interest in slime on social media, Elmer's experienced a 50 percent increase in sales for their glue and later released a commercial for "kid-friendly" slime recipes without borax. In March 2017, Newell Brands, the parent company of Elmer's, announced that it would be increasing its glue production to meet the demands of the slime craze. [6] Also in early 2017, Elmer's created a team of chemists and researchers to focus on the slime trend. On Etsy, vendors sold batches of their own homemade slime in the late 2010s. [2] [10] Also by 2018, American retailers like Walmart and Target and British retailers like WHSmith were investing in slime-related products. [7] The Blackburn-based slime company Zimpli Kids, according to its spokesperson, experienced significant growth in their sales from 2016 to 2018 and sold their powder to slime YouTubers. [10]
In 2017 and 2018, as slime rose in popularity on social media, it also became a popular theme in fashion, with slime-themed garments appearing on runways for Jeremy Scott and Adam Selman and Vogue France releasing its own slime video. [4] The Sloomoo Institute, a slime museum, was opened in Tribeca, New York City in October 2019. [3]
For Splinter , Cara Rose DeFabio wrote that the slime trend in the 2010s could be attributed to its affordability—considering its use of common household materials—social media content featuring slime not having a language barrier, nostalgia, and its ASMR properties. [9] The shareability of slime recipes and the potential for profit from selling slime have also been posited as reasons for its success. [1]
Elmer's Products, Inc. or simply Elmer's, is an American-based company that has a line of adhesive, craft, home repair, and office supply products. It is best known as the manufacturer of Elmer's Glue-All, a popular PVA-based synthetic glue, in addition to other brands including Krazy Glue, ProBond and CraftBond adhesives, and X-Acto cutting tools.
Slime is a toy product manufactured by Mattel, sold in a plastic trash can and introduced in February 1976. It consists of a non-toxic viscous, squishy and oozy green or other color material made primarily from guar gum. Different variations of Slime have been released over the years, including Slime containing rubber insects, eyeballs, and worms.
An internet celebrity, also referred to as a social media personality or an influencer, is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large, global audience, and internet celebrities are commonly present on large online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which primarily rely on user-generated content.
Natalie Tran, also known online as communitychannel, is an Australian YouTuber, actress, comedian, television presenter, and writer. On YouTube, she became known for her comedy videos in which she discusses everyday issues. She began posting on YouTube in 2006 while attending University of New South Wales. From 2006 to 2016, her channel consisted primarily of observational comedy videos with monologues. Tran was the most subscribed-to YouTuber in Australia and one of the highest-earning YouTubers globally in the late 2000s and early 2010s. She ceased uploading routinely to YouTube in late 2016.
An autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson. ASMR is a subjective experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin". It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control.
Vine was an American short-form video hosting service where users could share up to 6-second-long looping video clips. Founded in June 2012 by Rus Yusupov, Dom Hofmann and Colin Kroll, the company was bought by Twitter, Inc. four months later for $30 million. Vine launched with its iOS app on January 24, 2013, with Android and Windows versions following.
YouTube Rewind was an annual video series that was produced by YouTube and Portal A Interactive from 2010 to 2019. The videos were summaries of each year's viral videos, events, trends, and music. The series' annual installments were uploaded onto YouTube's official channel.
A mukbang is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes various quantities of food while interacting with the audience. The genre became popular in South Korea in the early 2010s, and has become a global trend since the mid-2010s. Varieties of foods ranging from pizza to noodles are consumed in front of a camera. The purpose of mukbang is also sometimes educational, introducing viewers to regional specialties or gourmet spots.
Wendy Jie Ayche, better known as Wengie or WRAYA, is a Chinese-Australian YouTuber, pop singer, and voice actress.
A YouTuber is a type of content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006, and subsequently appeared in the 2006 Time Person of the Year issue.
The floss is a popular dance in which a person repeatedly swings their arms, with clenched fists, from the back of their body to the front, on each side.
Oddly satisfying videos are internet videos that portray repetitive events or actions that viewers find pleasing. Common subjects include domino shows, parlor tricks, slime, pressure washing, hydraulic presses, scrap metal shredders, soap cutting and paint mixing. They are viewed as forms of escapism or ASMR.
Taylor Darling, also known as ASMR Darling or simply Darling, is an American ASMR creator, Twitch streamer and YouTuber known for making ASMR videos.
Claire Saffitz is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at Bon Appétit magazine and starred in several series on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, including Gourmet Makes, in which she created gourmet versions of popular snack foods by reverse engineering them. Since leaving the company, she has published two cookbooks, Dessert Person and What's for Dessert, which both became New York Times Best Sellers. She has continued work as a video host on her own YouTube channel and as a freelance recipe developer, including for New York Times Cooking.
The unicorn trend is a 2010s fad where individuals design, produce and use consumer objects adorned with a rainbow and/or vibrant color palette; typically composed of pastel or highly saturated colors such as pink, violet, yellow, blue and green. This tendency has gained in popularity since 2016, especially among millennials. Some in this generation associate the unicorn with a return to childhood and an escape from reality. Its popularity was also augmented by the influencer and celebrity economy of social networks. Some examples of consumer products that are commonly decorated in this style are phone cases, clothing, water bottles, tote bags, makeup and food.
Dalgona coffee, also known as hand beaten coffee, is a beverage originating from Macau made by whipping equal parts instant coffee powder, sugar, and hot water until it becomes creamy and then adding it to cold or hot milk. Occasionally, it is topped with coffee powder, cocoa, crumbled biscuits, or honey. It was popularized on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people refraining from going out started making videos of whipping the coffee at home, by hand without using electrical mixers. After the drink spread to South Korea, it was renamed "dalgona coffee" which is derived from dalgona, a Korean sugar candy, due to the resemblance in taste and appearance, though most dalgona coffee does not actually contain dalgona.
Mall goths are a subculture that began in the late-1990s in the United States. Originating as a pejorative to describe people who dressed goth for the fashion rather than culture, it eventually developed its own culture centred around nu metal, industrial metal, emo and the Hot Topic store chain. It has variously been described as a part of the goth subculture, as well as a separate subculture simply influenced by goth.
TikTok food trends are specific food recipes and food-related fads on the social media platform TikTok. This content amassed popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, given that many were inclined to eat at home while simultaneously turning to social media as a form of entertainment. While some TikTok users share their diets and recipes, others expand their brand or image on TikTok through step-by-step videos of easy and popular recipes. Users often refer to food-related content as "FoodTok."
An Internet aesthetic, also simply referred to as an aesthetic or microaesthetic, is a visual art style, sometimes accompanied by a fashion style, subculture, or music genre, that usually originates from the Internet or is popularized on it. Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, online aesthetics gained increasing popularity, specifically on social media platforms such as Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok, and often were used by people to express their individuality and creativity. They can also be used to create a sense of community and belonging among people who share the same interests. The term aesthetic has been described as being "totally divorced from its academic origins", and is commonly used as an adjective.