300) A Trendless World

A planner mentor of mine back in California sent me this NPR article titled, "The End Of Trends: If It's Hot, It's Over," by Linton Weeks. The article charts the rise of trends as a, well, trend, and its apparent decline.

Excerpt:

"...for decades trends have been set by a few at the top of the pecking order, may explain why there are fewer and fewer trends. Cable television and the Internet have splintered the mass audience that trend establishers and marketers once lorded over.

The Internet has so fractured us globally that we no longer are looking for mass-culture experiences. So major trends have become splintered mini-trends — which are not really trends at all. Trends only work when there is a growing audience that buys into them. And trends can only reach critical mass if the masses are not too critical.

And with the decline in trends comes a decline in the notion of there being such a thing as pop culture. Marketing companies can no longer take advantage of trends. So maybe the last trend we will see is a trend toward a Trendless World — full of surprise and originality."

I'd never thought of it that way. True, as in many other instances, the Internet has democratized trend setting and spotting. But wouldn't these mini-trends, as the article calls them, just be considered microtrends that may or may not ladder up to a larger macrotrend? For example, the re-invigoration of Polaroid, Holgas and Hipstamatic, boater hats and Oxfords, the re-election of those who held office in the past a la Jerry Brown are all microtrends in photography, fashion and politics, respectively. But they all fall under the macrotrend of nostalgia, a yearning for the familiarity of the past in times of uncertainty.

Anyways, a thought provoking article about a topic that I love, and thus, had to share.

(PS - The big 300! Only 65 more posts to go.)