Pudding with a fork: A new crazy trend is conquering Germany!

Pudding with a fork: A new crazy trend is conquering Germany!

In recent weeks, an unusual trend among young people has made headlines across the country: eating pudding together with forks in public places. This Sunday, over 1,000 young people gathered in Hanover, happily giving in to the new hype. But what is really behind this phenomenon? daily news reports that it's not just about enjoying the sweet dessert.

The real focus is on the media attention that such meetings generate. Nina Kolleck from the University of Potsdam describes the action as a “harmless escape from everyday life”. These meetings offer a welcome distraction, especially after the stressful years of the Corona pandemic, in which many young people were hardly able to experience normal puberty. The pudding, which represents security and the banal, is eaten inefficiently with forks, which gives the whole thing a humorous and absurd touch.

An outlet for youth

The idea behind eating pudding seems simple: community and fun without leaving a big hole in your wallet. One participant, Ida, highlights that it is a cost-effective leisure activity for young people. Robert, another participant, has completely different expectations and is looking forward to a “big escalation” at the next meeting. This enthusiasm is not only expressed by the participants, but also by the operators of the meme pages Hannover_memes with around 145,000 followers.

The trend has its origins in Karlsruhe, where a flyer for a pudding meeting was circulated. With the support of the meme page karlsruher.memes the first meeting finally took place. This event attracted many curious people who tested the pudding with forks, thereby creating the basis for a new form of social interaction. Further meetings are now planned in cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden and Munich.

Social media as a catalyst

The pudding trend impressively shows how much social media penetrates the lives of young people. A study by the Media Education Research Association shows that 95% of 12 to 19 year olds use the Internet every day. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat are not only popular means of communication, but also drivers of trends that meet the social need for belonging and identity. In this context, the Pudding-Treff is seen as an outlet that offers humor and absurdity in serious times.

These types of activities show that youth are capable of finding creative ways to relieve stress and worry. The pudding meetings are apparently not just a joke, but bring a community together that creates a distraction from everyday stress through doing things together and laughing. Whether this trend will last is currently uncertain, because as is often the case with viral phenomena, it is difficult to predict which trend will follow once the pudding hype is over.

It remains to be seen how young people will react to such impulses in the future and whether further bizarre actions will find their place on social media. What is certain is that the pudding with a fork has become a symbol of creative handling of challenges during this time.