Silly Bandz

What glows in the dark, changes color in the sun, can be scented, or and animal, a car, an underware or a text messgae phrase.
Silly Bandz are a trend sweeping the nation elementary and middle schools. These bandz were created in 2002 by a Japanese design team who wanted a more environmentally suitable form of rubber bands for the office. The first Silly Bandz were originally sold on the internet starting in 2008 and weren't introduced to stores til 2009. After a while Silly Bandz started spreading like wildfire. Pretty soon kids every where were rushing the stores to find the coolest silly bandz. Originally those who were relectant to sell silly bandz did not see the signaificane of te rubber bands. All that was needed was the demand from the tiny customers who came in huge numbers. No longer could anyone deny that Silly Bandz would be profitable in their stores. Not only were they in high demand they were being sold out nation wide.

It may seem silly to think a simple thing such as Silly Bandz could have such a huge impact but driving down these street through bussines areas you start to notice signs that read: Silly Bandz Sold Here. Personally being a someone who had no idea what Silly Bandz were and why Walgreen's felt the need to advertise on tier billboard that they caried them was beyond me.

In schools Silly Bandz are traded everyday, they have even become a nusicance. They seem to have become school yard currency. It seems as though one isnt cool unless they have silly bandz. Alos the cooler you Silly Bandz are the cooler you are.

Still do not be fooled children are not the only ones rocking these silicone rubber bands. If you pay closer attention you may notice many others people of different age groups rocking the bands as well, while not as elaborate as the younger generation. You start to see mothers who are showing of their Silly Bandz as well. 

As a college Freshman i can speak for both High School and College students when i say that Silly Bandz have taken over. Many of these young adults have younger sibling whom they witness collecting dozens of silly band that they wear arm on their arms entire length. It would seem that it did not take too much for these older kids to start following the trend as well. I have met many different people- high school freshman to college graduates and in between who rock their special few Silly Bandz proudly. Though some may only sought to mimick the passion of the young ones, the trend is spreading none the less.

In the past it had been the younger generation who looked to the older ones for guidance as to what they should consider "cool", which leads to the old story of that annoying little sister or brother who wont stay out of you stuff. Now the tables have been turned and by showing such a passion to a trend these little people have found a way to impact their elders. Now you have big brothers and sisters trying to strike deals in order to have that one cool silly band they saw you wearing and gotta have...Just One

Chucks

In 1917 a pair of Basketball shoes were created called All Stars, that became popular when Basketball player Chuck Talyor adopted them as his signature shoes. Chuck Taylor, born June 24 1901,was a basketball player for the Akron Firestones who was not only an amazing player but also an amazing sales person. HE became devoted to promoting and selling these shoes, so much that he drove around the country in a white Cadillac stopping in different place and speaking with different coaches in order to promte his shoe. He would get coaches to allow him do clinicals and teach basketball. While on the the road he basically lived out of his car and stayed in hotels on the way but he still had some sort of stability even in that situation. He would stay at the same hotels, engage in the same activities and even ate lunch with the same people. He was devoted to his goal and it paid off in the end.

These basketball shoes were originally a solid brown color and made with canvas and rubber soles. Eventually as they began to spread some changes were made and more styles and colors became available. In the 1930s He created a patriotic White High top Chuck with read and blue lines that were introduced at the olympics and he later the coached regional basketball team for the United States Air Force causing his shoe to be considered the official shoes for the Air Force.

Ever since Chuck Taylor joined with All Stars the shoes seem to have become immortal. They have been worn by rock bands, kids, teenagers, young adults, and many various famous people. There are those who are known to only ever be seen wearing chucks. They are worn for comfort by some and style by others. Though there are some people who are just waiting patiently for these shoes to go out of style it seems now that, that may nver completely happen. Personally i was one of these people and now i must confess that i have at least one pair of Chuck Taylor All Stars in my closet.

AS Seen on TV

How many infomercials have you seen that has made you think...why??
Flipping through the channels its nearly impossible to miss infomercials for products that are a "must" have. These commercials advertise things that are suppose to make accomplishing everyday things much easier and an affordable price. BUT how necessary and affordable are these products? Some of these things advertised are products that in reality are not a necessity. For example and infomercial for a toothpaste dispenser that squeezes out your tooth paste for you. Why pay more money for something that you could do manually for free?

The Snuggie is a full length body blanket with sleeves that is usually made of fleece material. It is advertised as a blanket with the solution to the problem of having to reach things and use your hands while under your blanket.
 Still this product has recieved alot of criticism ever since its first aring. The commercial shows several different people who are in need of a snuggie. First there is a woman who is comfortably watching television under her blanket but here telephone starts ringing so she has to fight with the blanket to get her hands out to reach to answer the phone and now she is no longer uner the warmth of her blanket. They also show a man who is trying to watch TV, eat popcorn and change the channel at the same time but doing so with a regular blanket is just creating a mess. What this commercial really shows is the incompetence of human beings. For instance the first woman under the blanket could have mearly slipped her hand out of the blanket to grab the phone with causing too much problems but this advertisement shows her struggling just to get her blanket off of her body. The man is no better, he is shown as someone who doesnt have the mental compacity to mutil task or eat without spilling.

Infomercials like this take the laziness of human beings and use it to try to sell there products. The trend is becoming that each infomercial shows something that people have difficulty doing without the aid of their products. They often show a person struggling with an every day task and people support this buy continually buyng these products. Especially the Snuggie that has become quite a success and is til rising.

Who was the genius who invented Crocs?

So, a few years ago a new craze exploded and took over the country- Crocs. Everywhere you turned, someone was wearing a Croc of a different color, but of course there were many opposing opinions about the shoe. They were obviously not very fashionable, but the people who bought them weren't interested in the fashion as much as they were in the comfort of the shoe. The shoe came in so many colors and sizes that the whole families were matching their crocs to their outfits.

Soon, they brought out "jibbitz" which are little charms that goes into the holes in the front of the shoe. They varied in color, shape and were brought out to celebrate the different seasons. For purpose of writing this blog, I decided to search for Crocs, and found that it has its own website (http://www.crocs.com/womens-footwear/women-footwear,default,sc.html). After checking out the link some more, I came to realize that there are so many different forms of the croc. Apparently they now come in boots, heels&wedges, sandals, slippers, sport, work and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Its just amazing to see how one, pretty ugly shoe has evolved, and the product line so long and wide. And I honestly don't think this trend will go away any time too soon. Crocs are apparently way too comfortable for people to just stop wearing it. Admittedly, some of the styles seem to look pretty decent, especially the ones in the Flats section.

If you have a pair, I hope I haven't offended you :) lol but...i guess Crocs are pretty much way more on the rise.

The Skinny Jean Fad

The Evolution of Skinny Jeans


   Its noted that in 2006, Kate Moss was spotted leaving her house in a pair of skinny jeans that she got from Top Shop. Thanks to her, the fire for the skinny jean fad was sparked. 


Since then, the skinny jean has become a very popular item of clothing for pretty much everyone. Girls- and guys! Girls of every shape and size caught onto the fad and fled to the stores to have a pair for themselves. Skinny jeans come in pretty much every shade, and even style, as some come "skinnier" than others. 


It just seems like the perfect accessory to every outfit, as it compliments a variety of tops and shoes that can be worn with it. Empire tops and other long blouses paired with a skinny jean and a pair of cute thong sandals is perfect for a girl's day to day activities. Replace the blouse with a more fun top and a blazer or bomber jacket and a pair of heels, is easily transforms the look from day to night. These fashionable jeans can be tucked in more easily into a pair of boots than boot-leg or straight jeans. 


Guys in 2006, were pretty much still wearing their jeans at a size that seemed two sizes bigger than what they actually needed to wear. By 2008, guys were wearing more fitted jeans- jeans that actually seemed to be their actual size, Slowly, but surely, even the rappers of the hip-hop world and started to wear skinny jeans, as Kanye West, Pharrell Williams and Lupe Fiasco were noted as the first to make the switch 

I think it seem to be quite a surprise .that these guys could  wear an item of clothing that was really originally made for women. They've added their own little twist, of course. The skinny jeans, they still sag their pants much below their waists, with some kind of colorful graphic tee and what they refer to as nerd glasses. There's also the option of wearing a plaid shirt over the colorful graphic tee. The main things that have not changed, are the fitted caps, and colorful footwear. 


I'm not sure how much longer this fad will last, but i guess it is nice to see that the jeans actually fitting guys now, rather than it falling off because it looks two sizes two big. 

Textese

Textese: also known as SMS language is defined as a term for abbreviations of the English language used in texting, instant messaging and chat rooms.

With the introduction of mobile phones and instant messaging people began shortening their messages to communicate faster.With the younger generation texting all hours of the day it has become necessary to shorten the English language to get as much across in one message without exhausting your fingers. Why type an entire grammatically correct sentence when it can be shortened to a few letters and number?

There are now so many abbreviations that not even the most frequent texter can identify. This is manly because different groups use different phrases. For example a online gamer may have different abbreviations for words that a non gamer may not identify with unless they are familiar with the topic. The same goes for a frequent Twitter user who will also have abbreviations that a non user would not know.

But the question is does this SMS language affect the English language? Though it is only the shortening of certain words and a few substitutions many feel that it is affecting how kids especially learn how to spell correctly. This argument is countered with the fact that just like differentiating between languages these same kids understand that it all depends on the context. Different situations call for different writing.As long as the correct context and use of language is taught earlier on there is no damage.

JUST TO EXPRESS LOVE:

<3....Heart

<333...Bigger Heart

i<3u...I heart you

143....1 for i...4 in LOVE...3 in YOU

831....8 letters, 3 words, 1 meaning

ILU.... I Love U

ILY......I Love You

LY.......Love Ya

LYLC..Love You Like Crazy

LYSM..Love You So Much

"Try to take over the World!"

 

THEN

In 1976 Apple Computers Inc. was established and in 2010 it is slowly taking over the world, literally. The first Macintosh was created in 1985 and initially sold well but second wind was not so great because of the prices of theses computers. Another bust was the Macintosh Portable which weighted 17 pound, explaining why they did not sell as well as the company hoped. The PowerBook on the other hand may have been what really got Apple soaring, thought it was short lived. 


Today Apple is constantly finding a way to put another company out of business or close to it. Between the iPhone, iPad and the MacBook there is no way of excaping Apple. With the introduction of iTunes it has become harder and harder to get media for free if you are using an Apple product. It was created so that files downloaded from file sharing engines weren't compatible with their products. Many people used programs such as Limewire to download music for free instead of paying $16 for a album in stores. Even though this was illegal activity many downloaders didn't see it as such a serious crime.Apple found a way to not only minimize this problem but to also gain a huge profit from it. With everyone rushing to the store to buy the latest Apple product they do not realize how much more money they will be paying to apple over the entire time span that they are using the product. Having to get everything from music to apps from the apple store is cutting out the file sharing and illegal downloading. Still Apple isn't only affect file sharing, they are also affect other legitimate companies as well such as Adobe, whose flash can no longer be played on the iPad or iPhones.

Need a flash light, a map, menstrual cycle tracker, a police tracker, to see the stars in the day? WELL THERE IS AN APP FOR THAT!!!!

The Death of MySpace

                                                                                  

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY FIREND TOM?

In 2006 MySpace became the most popular networking site on the web and dominated all others. Pretty soon everyone was unloading pictures, videos, creating their very own slide shows, page designs, music playlists and had a friend named Tom.

There was a time when I could not be on a computer and not check and update my MySpace. I would spend hours finding the right page layout, color scheme and background image for my page. Then I would move on to creating a new slide show since I had took a bunch of the new pictures since the last slide show. Finally I wouldn’t be able to log off without knowing that I updated my playlist and that its not going through the same played out songs. Of course all of this would take place after the routine checking of messages, comments and friend requests.

Even presidential candidates had a MySpace, it was the fastest way to connect to the younger generation. This however is one thing that lead to its downfall. When creating a website you expect to last, the bigger the intended audience the better. When MySpace came about it was obvious that it was designed with teens in mind. Everything about the website spoke to the younger generation, which is what lead to strike two against MySpace: continuing report of online stalking. If someone wanted to find a young teenage girl what better place to look than a website where the young girls poured out all their personal information without a second thought of safety. News reports centered around MySpace were appearing more and more everyday. Though they worked with authorities to catch these predators, their network was already developing a bad name especially with parents.

Throughout the years MySpace has tried to keep there users but there numbers are still plummeting. They have had to cut their employee size down to about 1000. Their biggest competitor Facebook has stolen their users like a thief in the night. It is becoming quite obvious after examining some of MySpace’s newest updates. From status updates to the new color scheme and even the addition of applications it is clear which network MySpace is currently trying to keep up with. This Network is slowly sinking and everyone is abandoning ship. Now the phrase is: Who uses MySpace anymore??

My Theme

My Theme

I remember transitioning from very first walkman, to my first CD player, to my first anti skip CD player, to a 512mb MP3 player, MP4, iPod Shuffle, and currently iTouch all in such a short period of time.

This semester I wanted to Blog about something that I could maintain and that I will find interesting enough to constantly want write more. What better than something that’s always changing? Which is why I chose to write about Trends and the effect they have on our society. It seems like everyday there is a new "must have", a new word, or something i am pretty sure wasn’t there last month.

A trend can be seen as a tendency, fad or a style that is instantly followed by a large population and just as quickly disappears.  Meaning something can be totally cool one day and the next its "dude you still use that?' For instance MySpace and its tragic end (to be discussed later). It doesn’t take very long for a trend to disappear. For some its time has come and past because of over use, others its just the fact that some thing bigger and better came along (maybe even smaller). This doesn’t mean that it is extinct forever, because sometimes that is not the case. Some trends find a way to make there way back around a second maybe even third time. In my blog I will be elaborating on these and so much more. Trends appear and disappear everywhere so there are many different types of trends that I will be looking into.