LocalBH hopped on the Clubhouse trend to discuss the meaning of trends
Isn’t that ironic? We followed the trend to dissect what trends really mean to us at this point in society – a society primarily driven by technology. A decade ago, we would’ve been talking about how it takes YEARS for something to actually be considered a trend. Nowadays? It takes hours. We literally watched that come to fruition a couple weeks ago…
Anyone recall the coffee-served-in-baby-bottles trend?
Turned into a trend real quick, got shut down even faster. Surely we’ve all heard about the baby bottle move that went around in the GCC, only to be completely shut down by the governments. It apparently all started with a woman who wanted coffee for her child, gave the coffee shop a baby bottle to pour it into instead, and some business owners made it into an actual thing for us “adults.”
I mean, it’s over now, but the question still stands: WHY? Why do we feel the need to follow anything that seems to be of interest to the majority? Why was something as juvenile as sipping coffee out of an INFANT’S BOTTLE come across as “desirable” to society? This even begs yet another question: do we really think about what the purpose of a new trend essentially is, before really rushing to hop on it?
That’s not to say that all trends are ‘bad,’ though, or even any at all. They give us some insight into the behavior of mankind and what really influences us or makes us tick. Some even do more than just that –
Some trends serve as a means for community awareness
The first one we discussed was the Ice Bucket Challenge, which took social media by storm a few years ago. The main objective of the challenge was actually to raise awareness for ALS, with an aim to encourage research donations. Many trends arise in a similar fashion and serve as a basis to invoke a positive reaction within society, and play a good role in doing so! The power of social media just lends a hand in spreading that awareness around – hence, us following the trends.
All in all, we have to remember that WE, as human beings, control trends – and essentially, the power of social media in its entirety – more than they control us. A trend is only born if enough of us give in to it, so the game of picking our battles would really come in strong here.
