Why do fads get really stupid?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

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Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
I was watching a game show from the late 70s. It was the "big hair" era. One woman had hair flowing down her back, and over her shoulders. No human being has that much hair. I know some friends had "rats" (?) which they wove into their own hair to make it look fuller. Hair started out with the Farah Fawcett hair, then grew into a woman swimming under a ton of hair.
Why do we keep doing fads to excess? Like today, with some walking around with every square inch of skin tattooed.
Why do fads get really stupid?
 

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fuzzybuddy said:
I was watching a game show from the late 70s. It was the "big hair" era. One woman had hair flowing down her back, and over her shoulders. No human being has that much hair. I know some friends had "rats" (?) which they wove into their own hair to make it look fuller. Hair started out with the Farah Fawcett hair, then grew into a woman swimming under a ton of hair.
Why do we keep doing fads to excess? Like today, with some walking around with every square inch of skin tattooed.
Why do fads get really stupid?
Click to expand...
at least Hair can be changed quite easily as with most fads..but the horrendous tattooing..is another thing altogether. What these people think they're going to look like when they're 70 and 80.. *ugh*...
 
DGD got on the tattoo bandwagon. She has 23! And then...she gained a crapton of weight from all the meds she had to take. Most of the tatts stretched right along with her skin. Now she's lost the crapton of weight. A good many of the tatts don't look so good anymore. Ummmm.
 

I just think we all have fads at some point, probably as the generations before us did. T'was ever thus.

I really can't understand how people have their tongues pierced.... surely it must feel like they have the need to swallow all the time. Rather like having a piece of food stuck in the teeth - feels SO uncomfortable and annoying!
 
My parents lived through the fads that I HAD to follow. I lived through the fads that my daughter HAD to follow. My daughter lived through the fads that my granddaughter HAD to follow. This generation? Well, my older great-granddaughter who just turned 8 just HAD to have one of those silly $35 pink Stanley Cups. Fads just keep getting more and more expensive but we'll live through them, I hope. The 4-year-old wants a spaceship. Sigh.
 
hollydolly said:
at least Hair can be changed quite easily as with most fads..but the horrendous tattooing..is another thing altogether. What these people think they're going to look like when they're 70 and 80.. *ugh*...
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I agree. I think that the excessive tattoos are very unattractive! A single tattoo that makes a simple statement seems fine so why write a book? And yes, imagine that skin in the later years!
 
Speaking of tattoos just about all of the aides here are covered with ink, they're mainly in their twenties and will discover the same thing, tats don't stay the same forever. I asked my morning girl this morning where she had hers, she doesn't have any, which is fine by me she told me that she was the kind of girl you could take home to meet Momma, I got a smile from that. I don't have any either, I've got my scars.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I was watching a game show from the late 70s. It was the "big hair" era. One woman had hair flowing down her back, and over her shoulders. No human being has that much hair. I know some friends had "rats" (?) which they wove into their own hair to make it look fuller. Hair started out with the Farah Fawcett hair, then grew into a woman swimming under a ton of hair.
Why do we keep doing fads to excess? Like today, with some walking around with every square inch of skin tattooed.
Why do fads get really stupid?
Click to expand...
I suppose people want to show they can out-fad the next person. And then we grow up.

People like Brigitte Bardot popularized the beehive hairdo, and I remember my mom going to a salon every week to get her beehive redone, and wrapping it in toilet paper every night to preserve it til the next appointment. I used to wonder how Dad felt about that.
 
Just my random thought but most seems to start with a TV show or movies. And most of the time it's just something new that is different from the previous trend of the time and ends up defining the decade. Once people tire of that trend , some show, movie, or music video (back in the 80's) does a look or theme that is entirely different and a new trend starts. The more the fad grows, the sillier they seem to get.

What I don't understand how fads such as cramming in a phone booth or swallowing goldfish start. Especially back in the days before social media. Did some random guys at some random college decide to see how many they could fit in a phone booth and challenge others to try to beat that record ?
 
TheOtherRick said:
Speaking of tattoos just about all of the aides here are covered with ink, they're mainly in their twenties and will discover the same thing, tats don't stay the same forever. I asked my morning girl this morning where she had hers, she doesn't have any, which is fine by me she told me that she was the kind of girl you could take home to meet Momma, I got a smile from that. I don't have any either, I've got my scars.
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I don't have any tattoos..I'm not very bright, and all my life I've acted before I thought... but tattoos were definitely not on my Radar ever for myself... However on a man on his forearm.. or somewhere other than his face/neck or hands..Tattoos are pretty acceptable... On a woman.. I don't care what anyone says..I think they're awful..regardless if it's just one..or 50.... and I'm speaking as the wife of a man who has tattoos..just on his arms.. and the mother of a daughter.. who has several tattoos.. not, thank god on her hands or face or neck.. but still visible.. and I think it's ugly...
 
Another trend, at least where I live, had its beginnings during Covid. It started with scented hand sanitizers, and grew from there. When I enter a medical facility of all places, the funk makes me gag as I enter. I don't know if the facility itself is pumping synthetic scent through the air ducts, or people are so heavily scented from laundry products or whatnot that it just hangs in the air, but it definitely bothers me. I have some breathing issues and these artificial scents are troublesome.

I have had to return items ordered online because some scent happy person has drenched it with some smell. And I make sure to tell them why I am returning it! I think of people suffering from long Covid and how you just can't assume everyone wants to have a smell on their things. Our postal carrier had to be spoken to because I had ordered some baked goods and the box reeked of his cologne. DH explained that his wife had health issues and could he be careful with our packages? His response was that he wanted to smell "good, and that is why he wore so much cologne." 😡 I don't know any woman who would be attracted to that much scent!
 
This is a good question.

Maybe it becomes a status symbol? I think that explains the tattooing, in some cases. "OH you have them on your neck? Well look a this - I'm gonna do all over my bald head and I might do my face next if my wife lets me!"

It's a lot like owning trucks. Who has the biggest damn truck? I think tattoos are that way for some men - insecurity and a need for attention on display.

But for other people, tattoos really are art. They are artistic and they think they are pretty/cool.

But, why do fads get stupid?
A. People are making money off of them.
B. Fear of missing out or being uncool.
C. Advertising. OMG, you have no idea how much advertising is LASER FOCUSED on teens and pre-teens. Not thru TV like in the old days - now the ads are coming through whatever Internet they use. Then they grow up and the same amount is focused on college students; then they graduate and the same amount is telling them to buy tons of stuff for their first apartment. They they get into their 30s and they are targeted with ads for every baby and child item you can imagine - strollers that sell for $500 and up, etc., etc.

Do you know why they don't target Seniors with so many ads (expect for loans, Medicare and meds)? Because studies have shown that by about age 50ish, consumers are SET IN OUR WAYS. We know which brands we like and we stick with them. We are not so easily swayed by advertising as the young, so they don't waste any ad dollars on us except in very limited realms.
 
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jujube said:
My parents lived through the fads that I HAD to follow. I lived through the fads that my daughter HAD to follow. My daughter lived through the fads that my granddaughter HAD to follow. This generation? Well, my older great-granddaughter who just turned 8 just HAD to have one of those silly $35 pink Stanley Cups. Fads just keep getting more and more expensive but we'll live through them, I hope. The 4-year-old wants a spaceship. Sigh.
Click to expand...
Ikea has a cardboard spaceship your 4-year-old will LOVE! AFTONSPARV children's tent, rocket white/red - IKEA. It's only $25.00

At least the Stanley cup is made in the U.S., right? Silly, but supports jobs here. Like the Kitchenaid mixer.
 
To be honest, I've never had a fad. Totally boring, I know. And I don't like tattoos also, especially in women.
(Edit: woman to women)
 
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VintageBetter said:
This is a good question.

Maybe it becomes a status symbol? I think that explains the tattooing, in some cases. "OH you have them on your neck? Well look a this - I'm gonna do all over my bald head and I might do my face next if my wife lets me!"

It's a lot like owning trucks. Who has the biggest damn truck? I think tattoos are that way for some men - insecurity and a need for attention on display.

But for other people, tattoos really are art. They are artistic and they think they are pretty/cool.

But, why do fads get stupid?
A. People are making money off of them.
B. Fear of missing out or being uncool.
C. Advertising. OMG, you have no idea how much advertising is LASER FOCUSED on teens and pre-teens. Not thru TV like in the old days - now the ads are coming through whatever Internet they use. Then they grow up and the same amount is focused on college students; then they graduate and the same amount is telling them to buy tons of stuff for their first apartment. They they get into their 30s and they are targeted with ads for every baby and child item you can imagine - strollers that sell for $500 and up, etc., etc.

Do you know why they don't target Seniors with so many ads (expect for loans, Medicare and meds)? Because studies have shown that by about age 50ish, consumers are SET IN OUR WAYS. We know which brands we like and we stick with them. We are not so easily swayed by advertising as the young, so they don't waste any ad dollars on us except in very limited realms.
Click to expand...
You wouldn't believe the television ads aimed at seniors, most of the ones I hear here are fear-based ads for drugs and alert services. Over and over I hear the same ads, most designed to scare the living daylights out of seniors and their children. I watch very little commercial TV and use adblockers on my laptop, so I'm not a good target.
 
hollydolly said:
at least Hair can be changed quite easily as with most fads..but the horrendous tattooing..is another thing altogether. What these people think they're going to look like when they're 70 and 80.. *ugh*...
Click to expand...
I first noticed that mainstream tattoo trend starting during the punk era of the late 70's and exploding more during the early grunge era of the early 90's so many who jumped on the fad then are soon approaching their 70's and 80's !
 
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