Word: fad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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They seem to realize that the flip side of phenomenon is fluke. Blair Witch, a film that antagonizes as many folks as it enthralls, could be as fleeting a fad as Deely Bobbers, and with no profound meaning for the future of film--except perhaps that struggling filmmakers with a marketable attitude will for a short, happy time be overpaid by studio bosses hoping against reason for another Blair Witch...
...tempting to write off this trend as a fad born of an economy that doesn't know when to quit, abetted by companies with more money than they know how to spend. But unusual offsites may be tapping into an economic shift that is more lasting than the bull market--the need for "soft" (interpersonal) skills in a quick-moving, unstructured service economy in which advantages are momentary and a slight shift in the business model can mean either big bucks or doom. "Because of all the complexity and chaos that we face in this era, we have to look...
...says a third of his male clients have tips, a look he has seen on a legislator at the state capitol as well as Mark Koehn, a 43-year-old local-news anchor. "You're seeing it in offices, and I don't really think this is a fad," Nowland says. "It's men evolving into the same degree of fashion rights that women have...
...South Park film is that happy surprise, an idea that is enriched as it expands from 20 minutes of TV time to 80 movie minutes. It confounds those who suspected that the explosive blips of the South Park fad were ready to flatline and that a feature film--likely to bore the faithful and annoy everyone else--was the surest way to do a Conan off the window ledge of the show's fading notoriety...
...most parents, Pokemon seems a relatively benign, if exasperating fad. But could it be a gateway to more dangerous obsessions? David Walsh, a child psychologist and founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family, thinks it's possible. The technology behind most video games, he explains, is based on a psychological principle called "operant conditioning"--essentially, stimulus-response-reward. "Research has shown that operant conditioning is a powerful shaper and influencer of behavior," says Walsh. "The obsession is not about violence; it's about how engrossing the game becomes...