In "Web Allows People Just Like You And Me To Spot Trends. Uh-oh," the WSJâs Lee Gomes predicts that the web â with its unparalleled ability to spread information widely quickly â will allow the rest of us to catch onto new cultural trends so fast that the cool kids will lose their cachet. Or does he?
Actually, he suggests that the âtrend-anointing casteâ will be âdisintermediatedâ by technology. An intermediator is by definition between two parties â in this case the trend originators and the trend followers. So Gomesâ target may not be the hipsters themselves, but the people who do what Malcolm Gladwell would call âtranslatingâ subcultural phenomena for more general audiences. Thus, the endangered species according to Gomes may not be the kid tripping over his frayed pants cuffs in 1998 so much as MTV and Urban Outfitters.
This doesnât seem right. Translation involves more than proclamation. Itâs not just a top 10 list, but a careful watering down of music and fashion to strengths tolerable to most consumers: the light beer version of cutting edge. Net synchronicity alone canât do this much.
Perhaps Gomes merely wants to remark on the pace of the translation and post-translation proliferation of fads. If so, then perhaps the cool kids are the big losers after all, bereft of the aesthetic jet lag that traditionally provides them a window of exclusivity.
Posted by Marie Gryphon on July 28, 2003