12 things from 2021 we’re happy to see the back of

It's taken up two whole years of our lives, but 2022 will be the year that Covid 19 will be no more – kaput, ended, gone!*Only joking, but we ARE hoping that next year will be free of national lockdowns.*not backed up with scientific evidence.

There's no denying that TikTok took off MAJORLY during the pandemic and now every Gen Z-er worth their salt has followers in the tens of thousands, but there's a sinister side of the platform which has seen teenagers end up in hospital – or worse – after engaging in dangerous TikTok trends. Let's hope that 2022 is the year that the novelty finally wears off and people start to priorities common sense over likes and shares.

Thanks to the Gen Z takeover of, well, basically the entire world, the questionable fashion of the 00s has been all the rage this year. Low rise jeans are now the height of fashion once more, instead of the builder's-bum-danger-zone they've been confined to for the last decade and a half. Butterfly motifs are EVERYWHERE. Can we consign these back to the archives for 2022, please?

IIt's not just TikTok's gone wrong that we want to see the back of next year – some of the food trends that came about on the app were, frankly, a bit gross. Take Emily Mariko's take on poke. Sure, it looked cute, but we've certainly had enough of it for a lifetime.

The real world might not have been the best place to be over the last couple of years, but not to worry as according to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook it will be a thing of the past when its' Metaverse takes over. While we'll have to wait another few years to start seeing our friends and family exclusively in virtual reality (oh, boo) you might have noticed that the Metaverse is already sneaking its way into our here and now, with Facebook's logo done away with on Instagram and replaced with Meta's.

After a chaotic COP26 conference in Glasgow this year, it was the protesters and activists who made the biggest impact while world leaders fell asleep during talks (naming no names, of course). Let's hope that next year the voices of those on the frontline are finally heard and we start to see a change.

Cast your mind back to the summer of 2021 and you MIGHT just remember a little something called The Euros. The country was awash with hope and excitement as the England team soared through the final, but lost out to Italy at the last minute. But never mind! We've got the World Cup to look forward to next year.

And on that note, can we all get over Jack Grealish? He's not gonna sleep with you! Although, never say never...

In the seven months since GB News launched, it's lost 60% of its viewers. With Piers Morgan gone from ITV and GB News under threat of going under, will 2022 be the year hate speech is banned on TV?

Without a doubt, A NATIONAL TRAVESTY of biblical proportions. After a number of technical issues and a fire at the Walker's Crisp Factory (which we imagine to be like Willy Wonka's only with potatoes instead of chocolate) the nation has faced a shortage of its' delectable goods. We're praying this snack crisis doesn't last into the New Year.

It's been a funny old time for social plans, hasn't it? We spent months and months being starved of interaction and desperate to meet our friends at the pub, but reports of an increase in cancelled restaurant bookings and no shows point to plenty of us struggling to get back into the social swing of things. While we may have spent the before times crippled by the fear of missing out, now there's a whole new term for dreading plans – and it's called the Hassle Of Going Out. Use it well.

'Woke' might have had good intentions to begin with, but over the course of the last year it's been weaponised to the point it's now the ultimate insult. So for 2022 we're hoping to do away with the term and replace it with good old fashion manners and conscientiousness. [Pictured: King of the anti-woke brigade* Laurence Fox.]*Not his official title.