TNCT – Trends, Networks and Critical Thinking

Trends and Fads

TRENDS
• “A trend is the beginning of a new direction, taking a turn or a twirl or a twist to
something that already exists. It starts something new and then over time, will become
more normal before something else will become a trend”- Anja Bisgaard Gade
• Is a look that has the appeal of ‘newness’.
• These are the things and activities continuing influence for a longer period, lasts for 1-10
years.

FADS
• Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short-lived popularity but fade away.
• A short-lived idea or a temporary event that is usually called ‘flash in the pan’.
• Month-months or seasonal
• They get super-hot real fast, and fizzle away just as fast
Characteristics of a FAD

• Confined to a particular segment in society.

• Is Trival because of its short life expectancy.
• Is not created but it is just a revived form of a style that all existed all along in the lives of
people.

Fringe Stage
• Innovative idea comes in
• In this stage entrepreneurial and business firms participate to develop and innovative
ideas.

Trendy Stage
• Consumer and public awareness of the Trend grows.
• During this stage “most fashion-forward brands and retailers” assess the viability of the
concept.

Mainstream
• In this stage conservative consumers join.
• Trends becomes a mainstream product service. When it happens a number of things can
occur: accept or reject the product, it can be reduced into a fad, it can be classic,
fragmentation of a trend.
 TNCT – Trends, Networks and Critical Thinking

Networks

What is a Network?

• It represents the idea of connections between entities in space.

• It contains a set of objects and a mapping or description of relations between the objects
or nodes (actors).
• A system in which some elements are connected to other elements in a systematic way
• Network has a three basic element: actors/nodes, links/ties and flows
• Types of networks: human & non-human networks, social and computer networks, and
Local and Nonlocal networks
Actors/Nodes

• Interconnected in a systematic way

• Generally composed of humans (friends, peers, colleagues, co-nationals etc.)
• It can also be composed of non-Humans such as (computers, nonhuman organisms,
ecological systems etc.)
• Lastly it can be both humans and nonhumans for instance (people who are operating a
machine) or (corporations, teams, universities, governments, and other networks.)
Link/Ties

• Refers to the connections among the actors in networks

• Defines the relationships that exists among the actors.
• Relationship can be: marriage, friendship, kinship, professional etc.
Flows

• Things that are being exchanged (given and received) by the actors through their links.
• Actors are not connected without a reason
• They are connected because there’s something that they want to exchange with one
another (money, people, goods, equipment, beliefs, power, norms, attitudes, and values)
Human & Non-human Networks

• People
• Network is involving televisions, radios, mobile, phone and nonhuman organism
• Ecological systems
Social and Computer Networks

• Social network & Computers

Local & Non-Local Networks

• LAN (Local Area Network)

• WAN (Wide Area Network)
• MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)

NETWORKS is a system or group of interconnected people or things.

The three basic elements of a network are ACTORS, LINKS, and FLOWS.
HUMAN & NON-HUMAN are the objects shared by the actors in networks.
Human networks are basically SOCIAL networks.
LAN is a computer network operating in a small area.
WAN is a computer network operating in a larger area.
The internet is an example of a WAN/MAN.
LOCAL social networks refer to human networks operating in a community, city, town,
province, and region, or below the national level of social work.
NATIONAL social networks refer to all human networks operating in the entire world.