Technology Vs. Individuality

By Joshua Norman

Technology gets people caught up in the popular trends through Social media which provides access to the popular trends. Trends tell us how to dress to fit in and what to do to fit in, that takes away from our individual thinking. Technology also provides the unlimited knowledge that stops us from thinking for ourselves and asking questions, it takes away from our imagination. Imagination and self-thinking is what makes us individuals, or at least two of the most important things in individual.

Although technology can provide us with information to expand our creativity but only if we access it for that purpose.  However we are bombarded by ads and social media problems and trends that distract us from achieving that goal. People need to disengage from social media and focus more on their own individual thinking and creativity. “But where would we be if Michael Dell hadn’t brought the home computer into nearly every household? If Steve Jobs hadn’t invented the iPhone? If Thomas Edison hadn’t created the lightbulb? Creativity drove these innovations, and that creativity is directly related to our individuality.” This quote shows the importance of Creativity and how it helped create the technology which is now taking away from our creativity. It’s ironic actually how that works, someone had the creative idea to make it easier to be creative and to help unite the world, but his idea is now taking away from our creativity and bringing us farther apart. “We no longer need to work to express our individuality in new and creative ways and put in the hard work of building Self-creation is no longer a process of  self-activity.” Technology has changed how we become ourselves, it has taken the hard work out of being individuals, and takes away the ability to be as creative by taking away the hard work of becoming individuals through hard creative ways, like Thomas Edison created the lightbulb making him famous as an individual. Thomas had to work to create the lightbulb, using his imagination and creativity to create it, but now, people don’t have to build new things or invent new things, they expect others to do it for them.

Technology does not enhance our creativity, it limits it by showing us ads and how “normal” people live and making us want to fit in. Technology has turned from new ways to communicate, write and grow, into a big propaganda tool. Daily people are bombarded with ads, trends and popular items that people get lost in the propaganda that we lose ourselves and our individuality.

“In a society one is expected to conform to the masses, where maintaining an individuality becomes an onerous task. There are a type of people who merely follow the crowd and there are also people (individuals) who strive to lead the way never following the beaten track and to be their own person.” This quote from the article, what is individuality and why is it important? This shows how people tend to fallow the trends instead of standing out and being different. Being unique is very important to society, people can only come up with new ideas and new creations only if they are different and are creative. Creativity is by far the most important thing in society and innovating, without a creative mind no new things can be created and technology limits the creativity in individuals by getting them hooked up in social media and blogs and tweets. All those factors adding up makes us less as individuals and more as a droid who fallows orders and does what all the others do, creativity and individuality needs to be encouraged and brought out more in schools and at home.

Citations:

Individuality vs. Fitting-In, Caitlin296, Round Rock, TX

Individuality Trumps Trends, April 24, 2014, Felipe De La Hoz/WSN

The end of the information frontier, A. Mowshowitz

INDIVIDUALITY: THE NEW CONFORMITY, Anonymous. New Oxford Review80.3 (Apr 2013): 16-18.

Cosplay and Individuality by Eden Daus

No culture is free of trends, but if one comes close the cosplay community would be it. But before we get into that subject, what is cosplay? Cosplay is, in literal terms, costume play. It is the practice of making or buying a costume to look like a character from an anime, book, video game, Tv show or movie. Often time’s people will wear these costumes to a convention, where people of similar interests gather.  When you attend a convention you tend to find “…a broad range of detail and attention given to each costume. Ranging from gorgeously designed costumes, to hulking behemoths to the sorts of things one might find at Party City around Halloween […]” (Johnson) Cosplay has no rules, and no trends. In this community, a cosplay worth ten dollars at a Halloween store is just as valued and just as fun as a thousand dollar homemade suit of armor. The equally valued nature of cosplay allows for many companies to compound on it. MAC is a wonderful example of this, as, “This celebration of uniqueness and individuality […] plays right into our core strengths: using makeup as a form of self-expression and individuality.” (Dawson) Makeup is, to many, a core part of cosplay. A simple style of makeup can take a wonderful costume and make it extraordinary. Seeing as cosplay itself is so free of trends and equally valued, it makes sense that the makeup involved would be the same. Cheap companies, (like L’Oréal with their Miss Manga) as well as more expensive ones (Like Ben Nye with their special effects lines) can coexist within the community because of the lack of trends. Each and every corporation that capitalizes on cosplay serves to increase the uniqueness and diversity of cosplay itself. Each makeup line, pattern company, or clothing store that seeks to appeal to the cosplay community brings more individuals in, and brings more forms of cosplay into existence.

When you dress as a character, it would be easy to assume that you would lose your individuality in the same way a teen does when they dress just like their friends. After all, you are simply coping the attire of another, right? This all too frequent assumption neglects many factors. First “Cosplay… provides still another way to experiment.” (Dawson)  Cosplay allow the expression of the individual’s personality and creativity. Take, for example, the Disney fandom. So many Disney princesses have been cosplayed, and yet, more often than not, the princess is not just a princess. Throughout the history of Disney cosplay there have been armored princesses, Jedi princesses, Sailor Moon style princesses, hipster princesses, parody princesses, gender-bent princesses and so much more. Each individual cosplayer creates a new image of the same character, whether through one of the large aforementioned changes, or through something as simple as a different makeup design. Even through changing the costume many would still claim that this would affect loosing identity, and individuality, however cosplay by its very nature cannot cause a loss of individuality, as “… scholars have considered cosplay as a mode of identity performance…” (Scott) Cosplay is a performance. An actor portraying the part of that character. To argue that it constitutes a loss would be to argue that an actor is not themselves, but their character. Changing the character, through makeup, parodies or otherwise is the cosplayer weaving their own story, creating a new character to portray. How I ask you, can a cosplayer lose their individuality when they, in turn, create individuality for new characters as well as themselves? Cosplay is an expression of art, and art, by any other name, is unique.

Technology and Individuality

By Joshua

Technology takes away from our individuality. Technology limits out ability to think for ourselves by forming our opinions for us. For example social medial will develop trends and people feel they have to follow those trends to be accepted in society. Technology limits our creativity by making things black and white right or wrong but not allowing room to develop your own ideas of the situation.

We also get so caught up in social media that it takes our time away from developing our own individual talents such as drawing writing or other creative activities. We get drawn into other people’s drama or so called world problems that they become our problems and we lose ourselves and who we are. “Our individual characteristics and traits are what initiates change and drives society; thus, in a world in which individuality didn’t exist, modern society as we know it would most likely fall to pieces.” This quote nicely sums up what would happen if there was no individuality, and technology is leading us to that. Though, “The other possibility for recognition – the non-alienating possibility – takes place in a real community through genuine acts of self-creation. The recognition of the other as other, as the individual that they are/create.” If we could do that than society won’t collapse like the first quote says.

The Librarian’s Guide to Intersecting Tech Trends says “Two-thirds of American adults own a smart phone and that number jumps even higher for young adults (Pew Research Center).” This shows that technology rules our world and we all feel pressured to fit in with modern society and getting a smart phone ourselves, or some kind of cellular device. “In today’s society, we have every convenience at our fingertips: computers, cell phones, and tablets all interact to make our lives easier” the article Individuality vs. Fitting-In says.

“…while on the one hand technology is freeing and allows us not to have to labour to do basic things and meet basic needs, it also reduces our individuality, hence our freedom and control over our own lives.” Another article says, “No one should part with their individuality and become that of another”. These are all examples of how technology plays a major role in our lives and takes away from our individuality.

Citations:

Individuality vs. Fitting-In, Caitlin296, Round Rock, TX

Technology and Individuality, April 3, 2014 by Adam Arnold

The end of the information frontier, A. Mowshowitz

 

Gunner Ellsworth Period 1 Scott Cleary Argumentative Blog Post “A trend is just peer pressure, but from everybody” –Gunner Ellsworth The definition of a trend is, “a fashion that is currently being used and abused by everyone” This means that trends are just a perception of what is going on. They can start or disappear as quickly as a breeze and are created by one or many people, which expands quickly. There are a lot of people nowadays who are afraid of trends “hipsters”. However, I think that trends are very important and beneficial. Trends are essentially peer pressure, which people think is bad, but most of the trends that go on are either neutral or actually beneficial to the community. Two examples of positive trends are Trends are often used to raise money for a favorable cause. In addition, trends in social media have made improvements in our community to do a sort of preen up for our facility’s around the globe. The reasons that trends are a positive include how Trends are often used to raise money for a favorable cause. In addition, trends in mobile devices and social media have made improvements in our community to do a sort of preen up to all our facility’s around the globe. Firstly, trends are often use to raise money for a favorable cause. An article on the ALS ice bucket challenge says, “However it began, it’s certainly gone viral, and has raised millions. The ESPN blog post noted that, as of August 20, “According to the ALS Association, in the two-week span — July 29 to Aug. 14 — after the Ice Bucket Challenge began, almost 146,000 new donors have come on board. During that period, $7.6 million was donated to the ALS Association’s various chapters, compared with $1.4 million during the same period in 2013. The national office was particularly flush, receiving $5.5 million of those donations, compared with $32,000 in the same period last year.” Without the ALS ice bucket challenge there would have never been all that money donated to ALS so this shows that even a peer pressure induced trend turned into something marvelous and I am sure ALS would thank us for that. Another article tells us, “Libraries are faced with the challenge of providing students with resources anytime, anywhere. But there is more to being mobile friendly than offering a library app.” This shows us that the libraries around the globe are improving because of the increase of mobile use trends that are some making the libraries have to improve their facilities so this trend is making our libraries better. The first source talks about trends, and how they are changing everything. Especially tech trends, it talks about how the internet and cell phones are making libraries irrelevant. The other source supports this idea by saying new and upcoming trends are in fact happening and improving our world. It takes a different angle though in saying that improvement that the trends are bringing is beneficial, and help society with things such as the ALS ice bucket challenge. They also are in accord with one another on the topic of how tech and social media trends are the most common because of our growing dependence on them. If we spend all our time somewhere then it is going to have the most trends and improve the most. Trends are good though depite being peer pressure and both sources clearly show this. Gunner Ellsworth Period 1 Scott Cleary Argumentative Blog Post The book we read was called feed, it was written using a lot of weird made up phrases just recognizable enough that you could understand what was going on but it was as if a first grader wrote it. (I know this was intentional.) In this novel, you notice that the characters see many trends come and go in the course of the book. Our topic that we wanted to focus on was how trends affect individuality. In the article “The Librarian’s Guide to Intersecting Tech Trends” The author said, Mobile is not a new trend but continues to grow in importance. Brian Solis of the Altimeter group writes, “The entire Web will be re-imagined for a mobile-first and mobile-only world…This radically transforms the purpose of the web to become more dynamic, personal and useful at a time when people are forcing the end of a traditional information-broadcast, page/form-based, keyword world. “ This interesting quote tells us about how important mobile devices are. It teaches us about the trend that is going on in these latter days dealing with everyone having a mobile phone, and how it is weird or unaccepted not to have one. Another Article called, “What is the Ice Bucket Challenge, anyway?” In this article, there is a quote that synthesizes with the quote mentioned previously. “However it began, it’s certainly gone viral, and has raised millions. The ESPN blog post noted that, as of August 20, “According to the ALS Association, in the two-week span — July 29 to Aug. 14 — after the Ice Bucket Challenge began, almost 146,000 new donors have come on board. During that period, $7.6 million was donated to the ALS Association’s various chapters, compared with $1.4 million during the same period in 2013. The national office was particularly flush, receiving $5.5 million of those donations, compared with $32,000 in the same period last year.” This quote from this source shows that some trends can be good for our environment or community. The social media trend of the ALS ice bucket challenge was beneficial even though it still was peer pressure it was a peer pressure that was beneficial. Both sources both compared and contrasted in the aspect of trends. The first sources refutes some of the trends where the second one is in full support of a social media trend that is going on called the ALS ice bucket challenge. The first article that opposes trends says, “Devices are becoming more common in the teaching and learning environment. Libraries are faced with the challenge of providing students with resources anytime, anywhere.” This source talks about how technology is taking over the informational industry, people cannot not have a mobile device because we rely so heavily on them. This shows that the trend of mobile devices is making people lose their individuality and not really letting people succeed without a device. The other sources opinion on this is that is shows that some trends are good and actually beneficial. The posit that while some trends might be discriminatory most aren’t and they really can be helpful. These sources show different sides of trends one is beneficial and one has difficulties. All trends are peer pressure essentially though and both sources portray this. The first sources wealth of information helps the second sources claim as well by showing how tech trends made the ALS ice bucket possible which is a good thing.

Peer Pressure and Trends by Eden Daus

Trends, specifically fashion trends, affect students more than you may know. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t just change what you wear. The expense of clothing trends is great. Seeing as fashion is a constantly moving wave of styles, it become a great monetary burden. According to the article Individuality Trumps Trends, “Not only is the high-end fashion world only attainable for a small percentage of people, but also society still craves some sort of continuity in dress as a means of self-affirmation.” (Hoz) People tend to want to be like everyone else. Dressing similarly allows people to feel like part of a group and therefore arbitrarily confirms themselves in relation to their peers. This perceived need to feel included drives many lower income people to illegal acts such as shoplifting, because of the increasingly large monetary burden that fashion inflicts. According to Deborah Sullivan, “Most shoplifters used to dress a certain way and felt left out. They feel like they have to keep up with other kids. If they don’t have the money, they’ll shoplift.” (Sullivan) Morals are a complicated subject that means different things to different people. Often times a person’s morals include not stealing, and otherwise following the law. When the monetary expense of fashion is too much, people seek self-affirmation through means of shoplifting. The pressure put on students to fit in or dress and act like everyone else is extreme. Peer pressure pushes students to the limits, causing them to act drastically to fit in.

How exactly do these trends affect the way kids act? Trends push kids into forfeiting individuality not only in dress but also in manner. Fashion is often a way to express one’s personality externally. It is often considered a freedom and “By muting this freedom, the fashion world silences the creative minds behind those who look to express themselves with eccentric patterns or edgy shapes.” (Smouse). Original style allows people to show their personal beliefs, attitudes, and overall personality. When one attempts to look like someone else, they subconsciously push their own personality out in favor of a more popular one. This creates a new question. How does this subconscious personality change affect the actions of students? Author Mass Boston asks “Have we adopted the opinions or even the mannerisms of someone we consider prestigious or someone we admire?” (Boston). Though the answer is not quite clear, the loss of individuality can help to answer it for us.  Trends tend to be, in one way or another, a form of mimicry. What does this mean? Mimicry is the action or art of copying someone else’s actions, and though usually it is meant to entertain or ridicule, it has gone much farther. The students in schools have falling into a whirlpool of mimicry. Students have begun to recreate, and copy actions and beliefs of their friends. It ranges from watching the shows they otherwise wouldn’t, to engaging in crimes that are against their beliefs and morals. Therefore, trends not only take from a person’s individual style, but also take from their individual personality and actions.

Too Many Trends

Trends are taking over the social media world. With the amount of social media used today and the amount of people that use it, new trends are constantly spreading. The amount of trends that are distributed through social media today are too much because people want to fit in with others and keep their social status up, but this takes away people’s individuality, and the allure of wanting to fit in can trick people into being satisfied with being like others and can pressure them into being someone they’re not.

Since trends are so common and popular now, it’s the norm to conform to the trends. This conformity to trends takes away people’s individuality. It is easy to see that “we as humans conform to be liked by another person or group, in other words, fit in” (Sims, para. 8). It is easy to see that most people want to be liked by others and “fit in” with some sort of group. Nobody wants to be left out and alone, so it is our human nature to want to be accepted. And when we conform to “the norms of fashion shows a certain social status. If you can keep up with the trends, it shows that you can afford to keep your closet up to date. Then it has a psycho-social base because everyone wants to fit in” (Hoz, para. 5). We, as human beings, feel the need to fit in and these trends are how we do that, and these trends show a social status for people. People want to fit in with others and keep their social status up, but this takes away people’s individuality. When people are constantly conforming to the trends, then they aren’t expressing themselves and their own individuality.

The trends that are constantly surrounding us can pressure people into changing who they are and not being themselves. “Every one of us has let the allure of fitting in get the best of us. Even the people who make it their business to tweet that they aren’t like everyone else, that they are their own person” (Sims, para. 12). A lot of people may say that they don’t care about fitting in, yet now that “being different” is the new fitting in, they really aren’t all that different. According to The Christian Science Monitory, “he felt it was more satisfying being anyone other than himself”, which shows how people can strive to be like others so much, that they aren’t even themselves anymore. The allure of wanting to fit in can trick people into being satisfied with being like others and can pressure them into being someone they’re not. It is so easy to get sucked into being like others and following the “cool” trends, but this is what takes away our individuality. We are constantly pressured by so many things to act a certain way or dress a certain way or talk a certain way. All this pressure is not good for teens these days who need to be able to express their own individuality without feeling like they are doing it all wrong.

When new trends are constantly being thrown at us, it’s hard to remember who we really are. The amount of trends that are distributed through social media today are too much because people want to fit in with others and keep their social status up, but this takes away people’s individuality, and the allure of wanting to fit in can trick people into being satisfied with being like others and can pressure them into being someone they’re not. What can you do about it? Remember to always be yourself and not fall into the conformity of all the trends and encourage others to express their own individuality as well.

Individuality

Showing your individuality seems to be the new trend these days, but doesn’t that just defeat the goal? New trends are sweeping across the world on a yearly, weekly and even daily basis. They can be anything from fashion to music to slang words. And with all the technology and social media we have now, they are spreading faster than ever. All this fast spreading trends can be hard on all the people who can’t afford to keep up. These teens can get bullied for not keeping up with all the trends. Teens will try to express their own individuality through what they wear, but if they are judged in what they wear, they tend to go towards the popular trends.

All the pressure to keep up with trends can lead to teens going to drastic measures just to be “cool” or fit in. “Most shoplifters used to dress a certain way and felt left out. They feel like they have to keep up with other kids. If they don’t have the money, they’ll shoplift” (Sullivan, para. 27). The pressure to keep up with all the new trends and not get judged for wearing the wrong things, can cause kids to do things that they wouldn’t normally do, such as shoplift. Most teens these days feel the need to fit in and when they don’t, they will lose self-confidence. “Not only is the high-end fashion world only attainable for a small percentage of people, but also society still craves some sort of continuity in dress as a means of self-affirmation” (Hoz, para. 6). Because people desire a stability in the way they dress, not being able to keep up with trends can cause them to go to drastic measures. The continuity in how people dress gives them some self-affirmation and self-confidence in how they look, but not very many people can attain the high-end fashion.

With all these trends sweeping across the world, there is a new type of trend or conformity forming that is in disguise. As stated by the New Oxford Review, “Individuality is the new conformity” (Anonymous, para. 7). This means that when some tries to express their individuality, while everyone else is expressing their own individuality, each person’s expression becomes impotent, lowering the “sock value” of their individuality. “For many people, the way they dress is considered statement, a way of feeling unique” (Encourage Human Nature, para. 9). When everyone tries to be different and unique, then being different becomes the new conformity. Many people think that if they dress or act differently, then they are unique, but if everyone is doing that, then it’s not unique and different, it’s all the same. Trends are becoming so popular and common these days that even being unique and different is a trend. And because it is like this now, people will often fall into the trends without even trying. Now that nonconformity is accepted, people try to dress differently by dressing alike, which defeats the whole purpose of individuality. The idea behind this is that if someone is a free-willed, do-whatever-they-want type of person, then they are just like everybody else. A “nonconformist conforming to nonconformity” (Anonymous, para. 8).

Rapidly spreading trends are effecting people’s lives every day. From the pressures of fitting in while still trying to be unique, to the intense effects that can have on teens today, trends and conforming to them are a huge part of our society today. There’s no way to avoid them, and no way to stop yourself to falling into the conformity, but that shouldn’t stop people from expressing themselves in whatever way they want.

Individuality: Beneficial or Detrimental

The problem with individuality as of recently is that conformity starts as soon as a child is born. First, parents name their child what they hope is a unique name but all of the other parents have the same idea which creates a society that conforms to an unknown trend. Throughout one’s lifetime clothing, slang, and musical trends pop up and go away that act like magnets to the teens of the modern world. These magnets create a society that is constantly under the burden of conforming to the trends that pass through their entire lifetime from peer pressure. Trends are affecting individuality throughout a person’s entire life time without giving them a choice about their name when they are born, receiving peer pressure from friends, and watching others in order to “fit in”.

Parents usually name their children when they are first born when the parents finally agree on a name. Most of the time the parents go to a list of uncommon names that they believe will be unique for the rest of their name. The children would receive names such as Jason, Jillian, Brian, and so on. Meanwhile parents all around the world are having the same idea which creates a hidden trend. When this happens common names such as John, Smith, and similar names have suddenly become uncommon while the uncommon names become common. Individuality: the New Conformity mentions that “the ‘uncommon’ names Cohen writes about are actually quite common, giving credence to Hal Niedzviecki’s theory that the ‘cultural value of individuality’ conceals a more highly valued, newly conceptualized type of conformity, or what he calls ‘herd-like individuality’” (New Oxford Review Para. 11). This ‘herd-like individuality’ has created a community where everyone is no longer unique.

There are millions of individuals around the world have been trying to have a kind of individuality that separates themselves from the group, something that makes them unique. The problem is that those millions of people are all trying to do the same thing, just like their parents when they were named. This means that everyone is conforming to the same overall idea of individuality that has now become a trend everyone follows without even realizing it. “Today, conformity is about doing whatever you feel like, whenever you feel like, so long as what you are doing is all about the new you” (New Oxford Review Para. 7). Take into consideration 16-year-old Tricia. She decided that it would be a good idea to go ahead and steal “’cause my friends were doing it” (Sullivan Para. 6). Peer pressure is a huge factor in trends that will change someone’s individuality. This is incredibly true when young teens around the world are trying to determine who they are and start a life of their own.

This individuality has become what everybody is trying to achieve. With the added path of mimicry to conformity, Individuality Versus Mimicry puts everything that the New Oxford Review mentions into context. One example is a college student who didn’t know who he was or how he should act. “Apparently he felt it was more satisfying being anyone other than himself” (Individuality versus mimicry Para. 1). This could be bad by causing a personality disorder which would continue through the rest of his life. Throughout his career as a student he ended up using this attribute to his advantage by making it a side job. With his capability to mimic people’s voices and looks he went into the field of mimicry and was very good at it. This also shows how what might seem like conformity is actually someone acting as an individual.

Trends are capable of changing ones individuality before they are even born and follow them throughout their entire lifetime. Parents start by choosing their child’s name and starting an unknown trend with a name that is not so unique. Then in the teenage years, classmates and friends pressure each other into following trends so they can be part of the culture together. Finally spending time in college trying to find ones individuality all the while being bombarded with cultural norms. Overall individuality has both positive and negative effects that depend on their personal choices and the trends that pass.

Conformity and the Cost

Trends can affect individuality in amazing ways that can be both beneficial and detrimental towards the rest of one’s lifetime. Individuality depends on how you change with the passing trends in order to be a part of the modern culture. The first example is a 16-year-old girl who decided that it would be a good idea to go to a store and shoplift. “Tricia says she shoplifted mostly ‘cause my friends were doing it” (Sullivan Para. 6). Since these teens decided to steal from the store, the group of teens now has a permanent record on their transcript of them stealing. This will follow them through the rest of high school, college and their search for a potential job. This was obviously detrimental to their future due to attempting to fit in with all of the rest of the world and be the individual that everyone else wanted. As they mentioned before:

“Those who fall behind fashion trends meet with derision, says Katie Trinh, 16, browsing at Eagle Rock Plaza: ‘These days, kids are supposed to have an image. If you don’t wear the kind of clothes, or the makeup, they misjudge you, they think you’re stupid. . . . They think you’re poor and they don’t want to talk to you. If you dress house, with baggy pants, clothes that are in, they think you’re cool’” (Sullivan Para. 25).

Basically the only way for you to be recognized is to either be rich enough to keep up with trends or steal in order to get what you want. However, there are always opportunities to use this painful chain to your advantage.

A student in college had what seemed like a problem with mimicry. He couldn’t decide who he wanted to be and everyone seemed to be better than him. “Apparently he felt it was more satisfying being anyone other than himself” (Individuality versus mimicry Para. 1). He felt that going around being like other people was more beneficial for him. In his mind he was one of the coolest people because he looked and acted just like the other people around him who seemed to be the best ones on campus. This could lead to some tricky situations and also lead to some trouble with drugs, alcohol and similar issues. Since he is in college maybe he had to deal with bad grades from being too distracted during class because of being too focused on acting like other people. Complimenting this fact Ruhlman mentions that, “more and more, I see friends compromising who they are or becoming someone who they are not. […] it is a result of an individual trying to fit in.” (Para. 3). This is what created that mimicry that we saw in the college student. In the end however mimicking everybody gave him a part time job as some extra income or just a way to have some fun with his friends.

This might make some think that trends are detrimental to individuality because of how peer pressure makes people do things such as steal during a trend while they normally wouldn’t. Some on the other hand take each problem that comes around and use it to their advantage like the college student was capable of doing. The truth, however, is that trends are actually beneficial to one’s individuality. The college student was able to use the passing trends and trying to keep up with them as a form of mimicry for his future job.

Overall trends truly are great things for forming a strong sense of individuality. You can take peer pressure and use it as a great learning experience. You might learn a huge sense of responsibility and why you shouldn’t steal. Then as a college student trying to find out who he was and find a place in the world he decided to become great at mimicry. Trends can create a hazardous future through peer pressure but could, at the same time, have you find a whole new unique side of yourself that could give you a job that will last for the rest of your life.

The book we read was called feed, it was written using a lot of weird made up phrases just recognizable enough that you could understand what was going on but it was as if a first grader wrote it. (I know this was intentional.) In this novel, you notice that the characters see many trends come and go in the course of the book. Our topic that we wanted to focus on was how trends affect individuality. In the article “The Librarian’s Guide to Intersecting Tech Trends” The author said, Mobile is not a new trend but continues to grow in importance. Brian Solis of the Altimeter group writes, “The entire Web will be re-imagined for a mobile-first and mobile-only world…This radically transforms the purpose of the web to become more dynamic, personal and useful at a time when people are forcing the end of a traditional information-broadcast, page/form-based, keyword world. “ This interesting quote tells us about how important mobile devices are. It teaches us about the trend that is going on in these latter days dealing with everyone having a mobile phone, and how it is weird or unaccepted not to have one. Another Article called, “What is the Ice Bucket Challenge, anyway?” In this article, there is a quote that synthesizes with the quote mentioned previously. “However it began, it’s certainly gone viral, and has raised millions. The ESPN blog post noted that, as of August 20, “According to the ALS Association, in the two-week span — July 29 to Aug. 14 — after the Ice Bucket Challenge began, almost 146,000 new donors have come on board. During that period, $7.6 million was donated to the ALS Association’s various chapters, compared with $1.4 million during the same period in 2013. The national office was particularly flush, receiving $5.5 million of those donations, compared with $32,000 in the same period last year.” This quote from this source shows that some trends can be good for our environment or community. The social media trend of the ALS ice bucket challenge was beneficial even though it still was peer pressure it was a peer pressure that was beneficial. By: Gunner Ellsworth