At the time of this writing, the latest “war” being waged over what’s cool and what’s not is about how tall your socks are. Ankle socks: OUT. Old. Uncool and millennial, apparently. Crew socks: IN. Evolved. Rebellious (???). The preferred sock for Gen Z, some are saying. Does it matter if any of this is empirically true? No! But manufactured generational warfare is probably selling a lot of crew socks right now.

The lifecycle of trends has never been shorter — current fads disappear as quickly as they bubble up. When anyone can prompt a discourse or viral feud, no trend ends up mattering much in the long run. So here’s The Verge staff taking a temperature on what’s hot and what’s not. Maybe some of this will catch on. And I’m sorry if any of it hurts your feelings.