Standing in the kitchen as you stared at your sneakers, your momma likely asked you more than once: “If your friends all jumped off a cliff, would you follow them?” Today you’d likely tweet #hellyes. We’re a smart species. Made it to the moon and put so many chemicals in a loaf of bread it takes two weeks to go stale.
So what psychological quirk, malfunction of reason or misfire of neurons makes us so quick to mirror stupidity — to dance the Harlem Shake on an airplane or take part in “potato parties,” a fad where you buy hundreds of dollars worth of French fries from a fast- food restaurant, pile them all onto trays, chow down and share the gastric and commonsense-bypass with friends online?
Humanity is no stranger to head-scratching fads. During the 1920s, flagpole sitting became the rage after Hollywood stuntman Alvin Kelly perched on a plank for 13 hours and 13 minutes.
In 1939, it was goldfish swallowing, after a Harvard freshman reportedly gulped one down. Like flagpole sitting, it started as a dare and thousands freely followed.
From streaking to stuffing our- selves inside telephone booths to toga parties, we love being idiots — as long as someone else starts the conga line.
While the adoption of iron smelting techniques would pave the way to written language, the age of social media has given us
The only thing we enjoy more than watching someone make a fool of themself is if we can join in.
So these are rich days for researchers and academics tracking the evolution of our united devolution.
Richard Jackson Harris, a professor of psychology at Kansas State University and an authority on mass communication, says social-media offers something fads have hungered for — speed.
“When people can post videos for all of their hundreds of friends on Facebook, it spreads faster than was ever possible before,” he explains.
Take a look at the dance craze.
“Previously, it would have taken months for this to be seen worldwide, if indeed it ever would, whereas now it takes — at most — days,” he adds.
The way a fad spreads may be new, but the reasoning is as old as sharing an apple.
“Some of the strongest human motivations involve pleasing and comparing ourselves to others, seeking their approval, and trying to be like them,” says Harris.
We look for the approval of our parents and friends and work-mates.
“Relatively harmless behaviors such as ‘liking’ a video on Facebook and passing it along to others are ways we can be like others at little cost,” the professor notes, adding it’s comforting to see ourselves as just like everyone else.
That goes counter to what most of us are taught: To be our own people.
Says Harris: “There is a constant tension within all of us between the drive to be like everyone else and the drive to establish our own individuality.”
Arthur Asa Berger, a professor emeritus at San Francisco State University and author of puts it more bluntly: “Remember, we are a nation of sheep ... our kids follow fads in fear that if they stand out and are different, they might be subject to ridicule and won’t be seen as cool.
“What social media do is allow us to find models to imitate without benefit of marketing, but we cannot underestimate the power of marketing to help create fads,” he wrote in an e-mail exchange with QMI Agency.
“As I write, thousand of marketers and advertising executives are knocking themselves out figuring out to do something that will go viral,”
“And you can be sure that marketers will try to figure out how to monetize the hit videos that become popular with teens.”
So maybe these fads aren’t so crazy after all, as they may help the economy, inspire creativity, unify us in laughter and boost the selfconfidence of people sharing an experience. Or, as your momsuspected, they’re just stupid.