It Trends to Get Weirder

Ms. Amarachi, our beloved English teacher, had us do some heavy reading for this post. The article by MSNBC entitled "Tattoos and Knitting" introduced the the topic of microtrends. Interests that have generally been ignored by those who are "normal" seem to be getting more popular, such as an increasing number of teenage knitters and tattooed businesspeople as well as the fast-growing group of videogaming moms over the age of 45. All I can say to the last group is that is weird.

So what are microtrends anyway? Microtrends can be described as large-scale deviations of a population from what previously was considered to be the norm. Say if 90% of all new Weimar employees were former Navy Seals, you'd have a microtrend.

Now there doesn't seem to be any logical explanation to this kind of a phenomen. Unless there's something wrong with the water, my hypothesis is that the interests of people these days are simply changing, perhaps because of the influence of the media. Some of these strange departures from the "norm" are just a matter of personal taste, but not all microtrends are harmless. A growing trend is to view the gay lifestyle as normal. This is degrading for society. Eventually the freedoms that people are trying to obtain that “don’t hurt anybody else” will eventually bring others down anyway.

The news article we had to read for this assignment is based on a book entitled Microtrends. The author came to came to the remarkable conclusion that if politicians were to cater to current microtrends, they would win instant popularity. Not surprisingly, he was hired by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Penn, the author of the book, had been meaning to write the book for years. He now decides to publish it, at the same time that he is involved in political campaigns. Interesting.

Now are there any microtrends at Weimar Academy? Not having the statistical information to back up my opinions I really can’t cite any trends aside from that fact that a lot more shirts are appearing at school with little eagle or alligator logo on them. Okay, maybe that’s just a fad. However, I do remember that when Rachel (my beloved sister) was in academy, there seemed to be a lot more Asians at Weimar. While Weimar Academy still maintains an international mix, it appears more students are from the States. But don’t quote me on that one, Audrey.