For the last 30-something years, hacky sacks have been sitting untouched, rotting and collecting dust in your parents’ attic. Then, BOOM! Everyone’s got a hacky sack. All of a sudden people are hacky sacking (sometimes just nicknamed sacking) everywhere! It’s not just in Barnstable, people all over the country, especially New-England, are enthralled. School teams have been spreading like wildfire. We even have our own Barnstable hacky sack account on Instagram, (@stable.hackysack) which has grossed almost 500 followers seemingly overnight. What’s with this Hacky Sack craze? How did it start, and when will it end?
Why is Hacky Sack Back?
Like many trends, it’s hard to find the exact source of all this commotion, but the trend seems to have started in early May of this year, when a couple of videos showcasing hack sack trick shots went viral. The trend has exploded from there. Now you can find videos all over Tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube. Many teens are asking their parents to dig out their old hacky sacks and start up school teams. There are even leaderboard rankings for best hacky sack players and teams in the country.
How to play Hacky Sack, and tips and tricks!
Hacky Sack is a simple game, where two or more players get in a circle and try to kick and bounce around a ball for as long as possible until it hits the ground. Bonus points if you can do cool tricks like bouncing it off your head.
Hacky Sack Terminology:
A Hack–A round in the game where every player tries to kick the hacky sack before it touches the ground.
Double Hack–Every player touches/kicks the hacky sack before it hits the ground.
Field Goal–Kicking the sack out of the circle so someone has to run and get it
Hackivist–Someone who is constantly trying to get other people to play Hacky Sack with them.
Black hole–When the sack drops in the middle of the circle, and no one tries to kick it.
Is This a Sign for the Future?
While there have been thousands of trends that come and go, hacky sacks might be different. Throughout the past year or more there’s been a wider trend among older Gen Z. As technology continues to advance and invade our personal lives, especially through artificial intelligence, Gen Z appears to be forgoing addicting algorithms and returning to a classic pen and paper way of doing things. The generation that grew up with YouTube, TikTok, and smartphones has been overcome with a sudden desire to get away from it all, and hacky sack might be a sign of that. There is a renaissance going on, not only for Hacky Sacks, but for analog living. Notebooking and writing have become more popular hobbies than they were five years ago. Human art has become something valuable. People are fighting back against AI as it becomes more normalized in our culture. Hacky sacking can be more than just a fun game with friends, but a way to get away from the screen and have real human connection with people.
“Its a fun way to bring people together,” said Junior Adrian Pichardo.
The Reality of Trends
The trend has been going around for a bit over a month now, but it seems it’s already dying off. It’s as if one day the world decided “welp, we’re done with that”. Less and less people are playing in hallways and outside and the Barnstable Hacky Sack Instagram account has been pretty quiet. Is Hacky Sack just another trend that’s gone by? Will it become popular again in another 20 years? It’s sad to see this trend quietly whisper out of popularity, because it was really fun while it lasted. Even teachers got in on it. It was a great way to get teens off their phones and interact with each other. It’s a great way to have fun with friends and an easy escape from reality for a moment.
