Slave to the craze
So I’ve got one. Eventually, I managed to get my hands on the Livestrong wristband. Thats it. I have it now. I have to ask myself though, why I actually got one in the first place. I mean, dont hate me, but its not really to show my awareness for cancer victims. I’m sure in the bigger scheme of things, whether or not I want it to be, its gonna have that effect on people who see me wearing it. But really… why bother? Then I realize – its cos its a craze. Everyone’s wearing them. There’s the ‘livestrong’ band, the ‘livewrong‘ band, the ‘livestoned‘ band and another one that I also wear, the ‘make-poverty-history‘ band.
Can you remember making armbands out of leather straps? What about ‘scooby-doo’ wire? What about even earlier back when people started flaring out the bottoms of their jeans – later becoming known as bell-bottoms.
Why did we get involved in such ludicracy? (except for the bellbottoms part)…(well maybe except for Dale) Because it was the craze. It was what everybody else was doing.
School was the best platform for crazes. They spread like wild-fire. All it took was one cool kid to replace his crappy schoolbag with a Karrimor or don a Kangol cap to school and within days, everyone was doing it. It didn’t work if you weren’t cool though. Trust me. I tried it. It didn’t work. I tried once to start a craze when I was in Standard 6 – brightly colored laces in school shoes – it didn’t work. I tried to force it for a week or so, but eventually the beating became to much to bear. I got it right later on though, when me and a friend come to school on our newly bought BMX’s. I had my shiny chrome GT and he had a Mongoose. We were initially scoffed at, but sure enough, within a month or so, 3 more people had dusted off their bikes and joined the clans. I can proudly say that still today, in Edgemead High School, there are more BMX’s than any other type of bike and me & my then friend, Jonathan Ellis, started that.
Whilst the appeal of some crazes isn’t too readily understandable, like mullets and aviator sunglasses, others are totally brilliant. The iPod is case-and-point in that regard as its fast become the top selling gadget in the world.
What makes a craze, into a social phenomenon. When does something make that transition from being a pointless effort of self validation, to a widely accepted mark of ‘coolness’?
I’ll leave you to ponder that. I’m gonna go play with my Livestrong band and fiddle with my Ipod Nano.
