Short Essay on Fads – 1. “A fad is a trivial, short-lived variation in speech, decoration, or behaviour”—Horton and Hunt.
2. “A fad is a temporary form of conduct that is followed enthusiastically by a large numbers of people”—Ian Robertson.
Fads differ from fashions in that they are more temporary and they are mildly scorned by the majority of the population. Those who take interest in them are called ‘faddists’. They are believed to follow a fad simply because they are “caught by it”, and not because it has any intrinsic value. On the other hand, those who are “fashionable” are more positively regarded till at least the fashion lasts.
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A fad often provides a means of asserting personal identity. It is a way of showing that one is worth noticing, and that one is a little different from everyone else. It is for this reason they appeal more to young people, who often have less stable identities than their elders.
They have a greater appeal to the rich rather than to the poor, because the rich can afford to spend for the fads. When a fad becomes wide-spread, it loses its charm and gets abandoned quickly. In general, fashions and fads have a greater appeal for the young rather for the old, to the rich and middle class people, rather than to the working people.