Used on social media to identify specific topics

Means of mass communication

Use one’s mind actively to form ideas
 How does media
and technology
become necessary
to make trends?
 TRENDS,
NETWORKS, AND
CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21ST
CENTURY
People of today’s generations are familiar
with the term trend through the popular
social media application, specifically,
Twitter.
Based on usage, a particular hashtag is
trending when it is frequently shared and/or
popularly talked about by other Twitter
users. In this sense, trending may be
understood to mean popular.
From this, one can infer that a trend is
something that is famous or widely known.
TREND
 TREND
■ A trend is a behavior or new way of doing things
and it has a big impact on our society.

■ It is a sequential pattern of change in a

condition, output, or process, or an average or
general tendency of a series of data points to
move in a certain direction over time,
represented by a line or curve on a graph.

■ It is a new item or a practice that stabilizes and

transforms into a habit, a lifestyle, or an
enduring product. Some trends seek to innovate
lifestyles and find practical ways to solve social
issues and improve our well-being. It could be a
response to the problems that have confronted
groups or societies. It also reveals the shape of
the future.
● Trend is something that covers
almost all of human activities
such as but not limited to
politics, beliefs, economics,
lifestyle, social life and the like
whether the individuals or
groups of people are aware of
it or not.
● It is defined in various ways
depending on the orientation
of these individuals or groups.
FAD
 FAD
■ It is seemingly drastic swings in mass behavior
without obvious external stimuli.
■ Fads are something that people are highly
interested in for a relatively short period of time.
■ It can be characterized as unpredictable, short-
lived and without social, economic, and political
significance (Bikhcandani, 1992).
• A Fad is something, such as an
interest or fashion, that is very
popular for a short time
(Merriam– Webster’s Learner’s
Dictionary).
• A fad is a product that has
little, if any, utility but is
characterized by a quick rise in
sales and popularity followed
by a quick decline in sales and
popularity.
• This quick up and down in
sales is because fad products
usually do not satisfy a strong
consumer need.
 FAD
A fad is an intense but short-lived fashion. It
is a widely– shared enthusiasm for
something, especially one that is short-lived.
It is a temporary fashion, a craze, interest, or
activity that people follow enthusiastically,
but lasts for a short period of time.
How does a trend differ from a
fad? To simply put it, a fad has a
definite beginning and a definite
end while a trend though has a
certain beginning at a certain
point in time or history but, it
evolves and changes as it
continues to grow.
Every generation has its own set
of fads.
TREND or FAD?
Spotting a
“trend”
 Spotting a TREND
■ Someone or something starts or
causes a trend.

■ A person who starts a trend is

called trendsetter.

■ The individual’s act or the event

has attracted attention, earned
acceptance, and created strong
interest and influence on people
whose number keeps increasing
as days go by.
■ The act or event is something
different from what is currently
going on and it becomes “the next
big thing”.

■ It demonstrates an accelerated
spread among various sectors
and areas and creates a deep and
wide scope of influence on
people, sectors, and the
environment. It leads to change.
■ According to futurists Rehn and Lindkvist
(2013), trendspotting refers to the study of
trends and the way they develop and affect
society.

■ According to them, this should be

differentiated from cool-hunting which is a
hunt for those things that will become
popular before they are popular.

■ Trend analysis is based on trendspotting

but it extends this into developing future
scenarios and so they say that to follow a
trend, one must not only be conscious of
what is currently happening but be wise
enough to predict the future.
■ Arzadon et.al. (2018) mentioned that trends and fads are sometimes used
interchangeably, and they are both important for organizations and
people to keep abreast with the changing environment.

■ However, it is also important to distinguish the difference between trends

and fads to deepen our understanding of survival and adaptability.

■ As members of society, we should know how fads and trends to create

changes in our society.

■ Certain fads and trends are created by dominant cultures catering to

their own interests.

■ As students, you should be able to analyze how to respond to the issues

and challenges brought about by these changes.
 Factors
Shaping Trends
Understanding factors that
shape trends can provide
us insights into how to
predict trends, how they
are developing, and how
they are sustained.
 Human needs
■ Humankind will instinctively tend to its
needs.

■ Our desire to build a better world or

improve the quality of life compels us to
discover, invent and explore new
technologies, products, services, forms
of knowledge and skills.

■ In meeting our needs, we enhance our

intelligence, creativity, and social skills
that in turn, increase our chances for
survival.
 Historical Forces
■ Humankind creates responses in social
issues.

■ The response varies how the government

impose its power while the citizenry can
act on its own.

■ The role of the government is to formulate

policies to response societal needs, but
when polices are enforced, behaviors
change and become trends that are
practiced by citizenry.
 Globalization
■ The global exchange of goods and
services increased the interaction
between states and societies.

■ The globalizing world integrates

information through global advertising
using technologies.

■ Thus, trends and innovations are also

carried on a global scale, ensuring the
resilience of the products.
 Digital Connectivity and
Social Media
■ Social Media continue to expand and
grow.

■ For example, Facebook has grown into

most popular social networking site,
catering businesses and
entrepreneurial initiatives in the
Philippines.

■ Products gain mileage because of the

advertising using this platform.
How do we spot
a Trend?
■ Recognizing what people WANT

◂ In knowing what people want,

you will be able to quickly
identify trends in their social
and economic milieu.

◂ Moreover, if the identified

want is significant enough,
then it is highly probable that
the idea or product will be
popular for a long period of
time.
■ Identifying what to expect

◂ If people start to expect

something, innovators and
industries will do their best to
address the needs and wants
of the people.
For example:
What people want?
Communication that is handy,
accessible and reliable
Trend made to answer what
people want - Cellular Phones
How do we
describe a
Trend?
 Duration of Time
■ Compared to fad, trend has a long lifespan.

■ It stays popular for a long period of time.

 Acceptability
■ Trends are popular with people and companies/businesses.
 Cultural Basis
■ Trends are mostly based on our cultural values, beliefs and traditions.

■ Trends continue to be popular because people see them as part of the

society’s culture.
 Transitory Increase or Decrease
■ A trend may show a rise and fall of popularity of some of its features over
time.
Elements of a
Trend
 Number of participants
● Pertains to people who follow a certain trend which is started by an
individual or a group of people.
● The group then grows into a community, and eventually swells into
national and international societies.
 Number of participants
● For example, the prevailing fashion of a period, follows what celebrities
are wearing or what fashion designers offer.
● People often copy the trendsetters and so a new fashion trend develops.
● In the recent century, styles of clothing are usually distinguished by
decades.
 Number of participants
● One example of this is denim jeans that became a casual wear by all
genders on a regular basis.
● Jeans are especially perfect for crafting swoon-worthy ensembles mostly
due to the fact that they work well with just about anything especially
when it comes to different looks (Griswold and Maguire 2020).
 Pattern of behaviour
● Refers to a trend that is formed from repetitive actions of people.
 Pattern of behaviour
● For example, the simple act of taking a selfie has now
become a cultural trend.
● It is almost impossible not to see someone taking a selfie
in any place - be it in a tourist spot, in a restaurant, in a
hotel lobby, beside a movie poster in a cinema, in a
concert hall, and at an event, among others.
● Before smartphones and portable digital cameras,
pictures or portraits were taken by another person.
● The selfie phenomenon enabled people to construct
themselves visually and present it to the public by
putting it on social media.
● Others view the taking of selfies with disdain as a symbol
of narcissism and superficiality, while others consider it
as an act of self-exploration and a gauge for acceptance.
 Long period of time
● It is one of the crucial elements of a trend which means that a trend has
to have a long-time frame, sometime running for decades.
● A trend may experience some ups and downs in popularity, may fade
away, and may recur.
 Long period of time
● A good example of this element of trend is the
telephone.
● It is a communication instrument that
revolutionized modern living and created various
social impacts.
● It was soon overtaken by the popularity of
mobile phones in the late 1990s that have text
messaging feature.
● Then newer technologies allowed smartphones to
include many applications and internet
connectivity.
● Although telephones are still present in homes and
offices, smartphones clearly have gotten ahead in
functionality and usage.
 Cause
● It refers to the starting point of a
trend which can be an idea, a
technology, an event or a person.
● All trends have beginnings and
someone or somebody definitely
started it.
● The question here is, how did it start?
● Now, this becomes quite obvious as
all material elements of a culture
started with one’s ideas, therefore, it
is also conclusive that one starting
point of a trend was an idea.
 Cause
● If you will try to think about it, it was
Alexander Graham Bell who first invented
and engineered the very first telephone back
in 1876.
● Fast forward a bit, back in the late 1990’s,
these messages through mails or letters
evolved and entered the digital world through
beepers while telephones also evolved into
cellular mobile phones.
● At present, all those separate features plus
some more were combined into the devices
we presently called “smartphones.”
● Believe it or not, all of these were one’s
ideas which eventually turned into a reality.
Characteristics
of Trends
● Trends are difficult to study and analyze.
● Studying them is like predicting the future and determining what changes may
possibly last and thus have wide effects on society and the people.
● Just like predicting an incoming rain or storm, it is quite difficult to measure its
impending aftermath.
● Rehn and Lindkvist (2013) mentioned a so-called hierarchy of trends, which
explains why trends seem to have varying reach, effects, and influences on
people.
● This hierarchy is a representation of the scale of the development of a trend.
To better explain this, here is the tabular representation of these
characteristics with some examples.
● Rehn and Lindkvist (2013) mentioned a so-called hierarchy of trends, which
explains why trends seem to have varying reach, effects, and influences on
people.

○ This hierarchy is a representation of the scale of the development of a

trend.
 Microtrends
• These are “little things that
happen all around us all the
time, the tiny shifts that
occur in everything from
clothes we wear and the
snacks we eat to the way we
work, play, and love.”
• These trends happen right
now and are outright
observable.
Smartphone Apps/Games which are dependent on the capabilities of a smartphone
(these apps/games oftentimes lose their popularity overtime).
 Macrotrends
• These are “aggregated
microtrends or more
sweeping changes that are
affecting society.”
• They provide major
changes that are
perceptible in the societal
level for a longer period.
Varying Smartphone brands (iPhones vs. android phones)
Battle for popularity of these smartphones
 Megatrends
• These are macrotrends that
have grown up and moved out.
• They are big, bold and affect
the lives of great swathes of
the human race.
• They can last for decades and
are “so pervasive as to be
generally known.”
• They have become the
prevailing condition that has
become too normal.
Smartphones which are dependent on the internet.
Smartphones are widely used by almost all people in the world.
 Gigatrends
• These are “trends that are
so general that they affect
most areas of human
life─or, at least, more than
one aspect of life or more
than one industry.”
• They are usually identified
to define an era.
Internet or the World Wide Web which may be
considered as the soul of almost all technology.