Walking through the halls of SVHS, the AirPod outbreak is clear. Apple’s suddenly successful AirPods are the center of memes and stereotypes; they created an irresistible image for countless teens.

  The memes which have emerged on all social media platforms are partially responsible for the newfound social hierarchy centered around AirPods. Apple AirPods now are a symbol of wealth on social media networks. It has become increasingly popular to jokingly speak down to anyone with “wires” connected to their headphones. People even go as far as calling those without AirPods “peasants.”

  In one of these popular memes, a person with AirPods is pictured along with caption, “I don’t speak broke.” Senior Ramon Contreras states, “I do not mean it when I make the jokes. It’s just a funny meme so I play along with it.”

  However, Senior Valerie Garcia doesn’t share the same humor. She explains “I think it’s funny, but it’s stupid. Just because you spend $150 on AirPods doesn’t mean you’re better than the rest of us.”

  Whether or not the memes are meant for humor regarding power, the influence of AirPods in the media promotes them by attaching wealth to the earbuds.

  In a random survey taken at SVHS, 17.19% of students owned Apple AirPods before winter break began, 20.31% received AirPods  during the break, and 62.5% do not own Airpods. AirPods are already popular now, and with more to come, the outbreak fad will continue.

  In the tech world, Apple is rumored to release the AirPods 2. However, the earbuds were not directly mentioned by Apple at their September Release Event, this the rumors will continue for awhile.