It has always existed (that we do what others say or do), the difference now is that it is at a much larger scale. It's global and spread to millions and millions in seconds. Earlier it was a news paper or magazine or a TV show. It was national or regional and local. And it was slower. It took days and weeks to spread using magazines and TV and word of mouth. Today with social media it is global and it takes seconds.

Newspapers, magazines and TV shows had editors to curate content, reputations to uphold, and were liable for things they published. Social media has none of those things.

Agree. Today a dude in their underwear can compose whatever they want from their bedroom without any team discussion, no accountability, no responsibility and nothing to lose.

I think we should first ask what proportion of people actually does fall for this. It doesn't take a large percentage of the world population to crowd a few popular spots or buy out what was previously a low-volume market.

Back in the day, adverts used to be obviously just adverts. Nowadays it's very difficult to determine what actually is an advert/influencer, or someone with some genuine facts.

people need to be better at gatekeeping

I'm not positive anybody is "falling for" anything, just a younger generation is discovering that tinned fish isn't just a snack that their grandfather likes and is actually an incredibly healthy, delicious, and inexpensive thing to keep in the pantry. Given the increasing cost of living, it makes sense that something like tinned fish would catch on. Sucks that some places are having difficulty stocking them, they're still abundant and cheap in my neck of the woods.

In moderation, yes. But the article is describing a three-day diet of only sardines and black coffee or tea. I like the occasional sardine (Thank you Alton Brown) but three days of nothing else is a little out there.