Trends this red hot minute in June 2019 are reflected by 323K tweets for the top 10 subjects trending on Twitter and 3.15B hits for the word “trend” on a Google search.
There are fashion trends, celebrity trends, and cat-video trends – all pretty much ignored by me. But most trends are not ignored.
Politicians vying for office follow any trend they believe will help them be elected. They may be well advised to discern if the trend makes sense, much less if it’s really good for people. Some just don’t care if it’s good for anyone as long as they can be elected to represent the people who want to follow a trend.
Businesses follow trends to make money. And they try to convince us to follow a trend so we will buy their offering.
Who bears responsibility for the results? Those trying to set trends or those responding to trends?
My friend, Andy, has worked for decades in the missions field. By necessity he must watch trends on migration, nationalism, emerging nations, and more. Each change in our world presents him with new challenges and new opportunities. Each deserves a response.
I love his insight on this: “We can respond to trends in several ways. First, we can ignore them. Second, we can fight them. Third, we can ride them. Fourth, we can turn them. It takes wisdom to know which to do. To complicate matters, today’s wise response might be tomorrow’s foolish response.”
Dana Carvey played the “church lady,” Enid Strict, on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s – before it became SNL. Enid saw the devil creeping behind the scenes in every fad and cultural trend. The fact that Donald Duck wore no pants was just one proof to Enid of society’s decay. Her moral scorecard helped her choose hilarious fights in her response to real and imagined trends.
Trends are not all bad – except maybe for cat videos. New trends may be good ideas that replace older, bad ideas.
Think carefully and patiently before you respond to a trend. But you will respond. Just don’t be an Enid.
The Paceline 
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