ACLC COLLEGE TACLOBAN

Tacloban City
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

ELEMENTS OF A TREND
1. 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. 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. 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).

2. Pattern of behavior refers to a trend that is formed from repetitive actions of

people. 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.

3. Long period of time 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. 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.

4. Cause 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. Someone or
somebody thought about it in the first place. Let us go back to the evolution of
telephone mentioned above. 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 (https://www.britannica.com). What do you think prompted him to such an
endeavor? Well, if you guessed that it began with an idea of bridging the gap of a
long – distance relations though live voice communication then you must be right.
So, besides the snail mails which were already prevalent those times, people had
another option – the telephone. 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.

5. Consequence refers to the considerable impact or influence of a trend. Social

networking has become an encompassing trend that tends to influence behaviors
of online users. With the popularity of smartphones, users began subscribing to
various social networking portals which enable them to post activity statuses and
photos, and even connect with celebrities. Currently, these social media platforms
and their messaging and video conferencing features are finding their relevance
today especially for the students and teachers. For example, due to the pandemic,
teachers, students and parents use these features for the virtual teaching and
learning process. However, this trend can also create a rather negative
consequence among its followers. Quality time among family members to share
one another’s presence is being diverted to other less relevant concerns brought
about by the social media. They can literally be described as “near yet so far” which
means that they may be physically near each other, in fact, sharing food on the
same table, yet their attention is far from the family moment.