Recently on social media I’ve seen a lot of ideas reused and reshared. Jokes from my childhood are showing up like they are new. Platitudes are being repeated. And stories are being redone. This isn’t new, but it’s a growing pattern. Look at how many movies are being redone as a perfect example. The same story with new characters.

It’s not just about bringing back the classics. Rather it’s about the constant demand for new content. There just aren’t enough ideas to feed the content machines so riffing off of past content becomes an easier option.

A perfect example is that I’ve seen a couple different reasons of this video recently.

I first saw this go viral 12 years ago and here it is making the rounds again. But it’s not this version, it’s completely redone. Old ideas recycled with new content. There is going to be a lot more of this old content redelivered in the coming years, because the algorithm for engagement is all about putting new content out there fast and often… and new ideas are harder to come up with compared to something that already had success. The old is new again.