Let’s examine this NYT story (about how technology is changing breakfast) for the signs of an trend craziness:
- Story pegged around a small sample (‘normal’ families), thus announcing trend? Check.
- cute soundbite? Check (‘this is morning in the internet age’)
- Quote from professor? Check.
- Set of data from third party sources to confirm trend? Check (internet traffic data by hour).
And, of course, no real news. In fact, I’d bet that if you went back 20 or 30 years there would be a NYT story that talked about how TV was changing breakfast, and before that how radio was changing breakfast, etc.
In general, I have a high tolerance for faux trend stories. But I always wonder when seeing them…is nothing else happening in the world that I should know about?