Itroduction to

TRENDS, NETWORKS,
and Critical Thinking Skills
Subject Description: The course provides opportunities
for students to discover patterns and extract meanings
from emerging trends. It aids in developing their
critical and creative thinking skills-- essential tools for
decision making and understanding “ethics of care”.
Global trends in the 21st century are examined and are
either accepted or rejected on a sound set of criteria.
Students will be asked to create and analyze scenarios
that will challenge them to (1) formulate their stances
on issues or concerns; (2) propose interventions and; (3)
formulate alternative futures. The students will realize
Unit I. Understanding the Elements and
Characteristics of Trends
Unit II. Understanding Local Networks
Unit III. Global Networks: Labor and Migration
Unit IV. Planetary Networks: Climate Change
Unit V. Democratic Interventions
Unit VI. Information and Communications
Technology
Unit VII. Neural and Social Networks
Give me a short
description or
one word that
can describe
TRENDS.
 Understanding the Elements and
UNIT I Characteristics of Trends

In this unit, you will explore the meaning of trends and how they operate
as forces for social change in many communities and societies in the world
today.
Leraning Outcomes
Having worked through this unit, you should be better able to
• Define a trend and connect it to larger social issues;
• Explain the process of spotting a trend;
• Point out the elements that make up a trend and how it differs from a
fad; and
• Describe the different characteristics of a trend.
 What is a Trend?
Lesson 1
 “Don’t follow a
trend, Follow
your heart.”
----Krist Novoselic

Think and reflect about the quotation above. What does this
quotation tell you?
The picture shows a Volkswagen
from a revolutionary idea in the Think small!
1960s that shook up the car
industry in the world, calling for
the shrinking of perspective,
ambition, and scale in the era
where the trend was to have
bigger and better gains in life,
even already developed nations
were willing to make big changes,
but only when the first saw the
small, concrete steps that led to
those changes. Indeed,
Volkswagen set a trend in the car
industry in the world.
 What is a trend?
How do we know
that something is a
trend?
 Using the matrix below let us try identify some trends that had somehow changed
our lives and the way we see things?

What? So what? Now what?

Currently Why do they What can you

popular matter? What do about
trends in the differences do these trends?
these facts or
country
ideas make in
people’s
lives?
 What? So what? Now what?

Food cart It is affordable and

easy to market. There
It’s a great training
ground to learn the
business are variety of food to
choose from and the
science of food
industry and
convenience to set up business. 
the cart anywhere you
want. You can
assemble it near the
malls, schools, parks,
or places where there
are a lot of people. 
TRENDS

MICROTRENDS

MEGATRENDS
Rapid change is a constant
feature of our lives. One
can see the various
evidence of development
in our society, which
include scientific,
technological, social, and
political transformations
that will continue to
influence human lives in
the future.
 Rapid changes in
technologies,
legislation, and social
values can alter or
damage traditional
lifestyles, communities,
and the way we relate
ourselves to the world.
To understand ourselves
better in the face of
these giant leaps of
humanity, it is
imperative to study
trends both in the local
and global scenes for us
to survive. Some of
these trends can be
beneficial to us or not.
The earlier the clearer
we discern trends, the
more we benefit by
changing our current
recipes for success to
keep up with the
changes in the world.
A trend is a sequential
pattern of change in
recorded data-a
change evidenced by a
rise or fall of variables
when measured
between at least two
points over time
(Gordon,2008)
TRENDS Trends must pass basic
tests of significance; a
change that affects a
wide range of people
and that has broad
social, economic,
cultural, spiritual, and
political implications.

Trends facilitate social The development of

change and nations and
development in communities is
societies. propelled by trends.
 MEGATRENDS
Megatrends entail a Megatrends are not
major restricting; they always created by the
are a larger pattern of majority of society.
broad trends that
reshape and transform
our lives.

A Megatrend is a large-
A trend in a global scale, sustained shift in
scale is called whatever is being
Megatrend. measured.
 Here are some of the
megatrends identified by
Naisbitt (1982) and Patricia
Aburdene (1990)
 The Original Megatrends
(1982)
• From industrial society to
an information society
• From forced technology to
high tech or high-touch
technology
• From a national economy
to a world economy
• From short term to long
term
 • From centralization to
decentralization
• From institutional help to
self-help
• From representative
democracy to participatory
democracy
• From hierarchies to
networking
• From north to south
• From either/or to multiple
options
Megatrends 2000 (1990)
with
Patricia Aburdene
• The blooming global economy
• Renaissance in the arts
• The emergence of Free-
market Socialism
• Global Lifestyles and Cultural
Nationalism
• The rise of Women in
Leadership
• The age of Biology
• Religious rival
• Triumph of individual
 Microtrends are the
MICROTRENDS
emerging small forces
behind tomorrow’s big
changes.

Microtrends are
introduced as the most
powerful forces in our
society.
 These are small forces that
can stir big changes in
communities, institutions,
and societies around the
world. Usually, these forces
are emergent and
unexpected to shape before
us. This is attributed to the
power of individual choice
over trends that we are trying
to understand.
 It takes serious study to
discern these patterns that
heavily influence our
choices. These microtrends
advocate localization as
opposed to globalization.
They recognized that
people and communities
have never been more
sophisticated and more
knowledgeable about the
choices they make in their
everyday lives.
 In today’s world, it is an
ongoing challenge for
humanity to clearly
understand the identity and
growth of groups and
organizations that are
moving in varied directions.
 Activity # 1
Classify the following
trends as microtrends
or megatrends. Be sure
to explain your
reason/s for
categorizing them.
 1. The growing number of international
students presents a challenge for
administrators and educators in terms of
their preparation to live and work in a
globalizing world.
2. The number of left-handed people in Asia
has doubled in two generations.
3. Mr. Ato dela Cruz has a made-to-order car
delivered to him in less than a month.
4. A cultural shift toward a healthies living
among Asians.
5. ASEAN integration
 6. Stay-at-home workers
7. Mothers over 45 years old are the fastest
growing group of DOTA players.
8. The rise of fast food businesses
9. A coffee shop becomes popular because it
allows people to make their choice of coffee,
their milk, and their sweetener.
10. iPods are popular because they let us pick
and choose our own songs.