Too many consultants, news people, and infotainment sources are trying to spot the next new trend.  They want to be first. They want to create it so they can show the world how savvy and astute they are. The problem? Too often they're just full of shit.

New trends come about because people (either individually or collectively) begin to behave in the same way and then feed off of others behaving like that.  It's kind of like the wave at a football game. One drunken idiot (the forward thinker in this case) spends half the game screaming at everyone to stand up and do the wave.  At some point, the entire stadium does it a few times and then it dies down because we all grow sick of it. Chances are, you have no idea how it started and barely notice when it ends. But you may or may not take part in a little group think.

The Internet seems to have given voice to too many of these drunken idiots, I mean self-actualized forward thinkers. Too many experts are pointing at every new thing they see as a new trend (thus the picture I retrieved from a twitter feed proclaiming "New trend: fun socks for men." God I hope not). Even brands are trying to push their crappy wares onto consumers and claim them to be a trend. Occasionally consumers are duped into adopting these trends.

The best trends are the ones that happen organically. By the time the experts and Fortune 500 companies notice them, they're already played out.