Trends Vs Fads

Is this a trend, a counter-trend or a fad?

It’s not a trend to my mind – not large enough in scale or fast enough in velocity. It could be a classic counter-trend. The bigger a macro-trend the greater the chance that a micro-trend will emerge as a balancing force in my experience (e.g. globalisation drives localisation, fast food drives slow food, digitalisation drives craft). I think this is a fad driven by a certain demographic (nostalgic), but also a kind of reverse /ironic status.

In the case of phones though, there’s also a real need. The low-cost dumbphone was  originally designed to appeal to poor users in Asia and especially Africa. They now appeal to people seeking a cheap phone that won’t get stolen, won’t break if dropped, won’t act as a tracking device and won’t run out of battery life in an emergency.

The Nokia 3310, for example, isn’t the future of phones, far from it, but it is part of a longing for simplicity. It’s one species within a complex ecosystem of technical diversity.

Facebook Fatigue

Sums it up pretty well. The other metaphor I quite like is that it’s like you’ve been going to confession for about ten years and you suddenly find out that everything you said to the priest has been sold on to third parties. The other thing about Zuckerberg is I honestly don’t think he understands what the problem is.