"On the surface, fads and trends can seem silly or trivial. But if you dig deeper, you'll find fads can cause regular people to make some pretty irregular decisions in order to follow the latest craze. Fads can also have major long-term effects, such as the beaver pelt craze in 17th century Europe, which changed ecosystems, started wars, and disrupted or destroyed traditional ways of life. Divided into four chapters, Trending tackles the topics of: 1. Chapter One What Makes a Fad a Fad?: How seemingly random toys, games, and fashion turn into the Next Big Thing. 2. Chapter Two Spread the Word: How fads, and the ideas that drive them, spread and catch fire. 3. Chapter Three Made, Not Born: How fads can be carefully crafted to make us want to jump on board. 4. Chapter Four Bad Fads: How fads can have serious and even dangerous effects on the people drawn into the mania, not to mention those who get caught in the aftermath. 5. Trending ends with a conclusion focused on using knowledge gained about fads to make the world a kinder place. Plus index and selected bibliography. Comic-strip illustrations introduce each chapter and What Does It All Mean? sections on every spread offer insights and analysis. Written in Vermond's humour-filled, journalistic voice and illustrated in Hanmer's light-hearted cartoon style, Trending is a timely look at fads and trends for a world gone viral"--Provided by publisher.