What is the biggest trend that you completely missed?

[RDMcG]

I was think the other day of the huge impact technology has on our lives and for thew most part I embraced it early..personal computing, mobility, the web and so on.

There was one thing however that utterly flummoxed me.

I first came across this at the Coliseum in Rome many years ago when the vendor was selling some kind of telescopic sticks. "what are these for?"
"Sticks for your phone so you can take a picture of yourself"

LOL..nobody will be taking pictures of themselves, I thought. Who would want to see you in front of the Taj Mahal/Coliseum/Eiffel Tower or the like?.

Now I see people walking down the street, pausing to pose in front of all kinds of stuff, hanging off of cliffs and mountains. What do they do with them?

Also popular are getting someone else to photograph you done something dangerous...
Years ago I saw this kid standing right on the Grand Canyon ledge, a light wind to get the shot...I did not make a sound, but people fall in every month.

I have travelled all my life and it would never occur to me to have my pic in front of stuff or with famous people either.

However I clearly completely missed this trend. Any others people have missed?




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Edited by RDMcG on Tuesday 12th July 21:33

[Hoofy]

Bitcoin.

Near the start (it was worth around $250), someone I know was raving about bitcoin (btc) and was so convinced that it would be the next best thing since sliced bread that he was trying to encourage me to get into it by offering to give me 1 BTC.

I said, Nah thanks.

Ask me for more financial advice.

[RDMcG]

Hoofy said:

Bitcoin.

Near the start (it was worth around $250), someone I know was raving about bitcoin (btc) and was so convinced that it would be the next best thing since sliced bread that he was trying to encourage me to get into it by offering to give me 1 BTC.

I said, Nah thanks.

Ask me for more financial advice.

My son was early into this and worked hard to convince me.
I knew much better of course.

[DodgyGeezer]

Apple shares. Just think if you'd bought Apple share instead of the first iPod....

I'm with the OP on selfie-sticks!

[thebraketester]

DodgyGeezer said:

Apple shares. Just think if you'd bought Apple share instead of the first iPod....

I'm with the OP on selfie-sticks!

I did the maths on that a while back it was high 10s of thousand but not quite 100,000 IIRC.

[PositronicRay]

One wheel pint. Saw someone zipping along on one of these beauties, looked supberb.

[Whats on Second]

tattoos probably. in my day only old lags, servicemen and low lifes had 'em.

[The Mad Monk]

Whats on Second said:

tattoos probably. in my day only old lags, servicemen and low lifes had 'em.

Still true.

[austinsmirk]

Never missed it because I’m not a bell end:

Covering my body in Celtic tattoos

Eat stretching.

Hanging multiple pieces of scrap metal out of my face.

[Hoofy]

RDMcG said:

Hoofy said:

Bitcoin.

Near the start (it was worth around $250), someone I know was raving about bitcoin (btc) and was so convinced that it would be the next best thing since sliced bread that he was trying to encourage me to get into it by offering to give me 1 BTC.

I said, Nah thanks.

Ask me for more financial advice.

My son was early into this and worked hard to convince me.
I knew much better of course.

Is he sitting on a fat profit or did he buy more when it was $30k and now regrets it?

[Tyre Tread]

Me circa 1987: Mobile phones will never catch on.

Mind you, Thomas Watson, President of IBM said "“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”"

[anonymous-user]

Sport, the watching of. I just don’t get it, football, rugby, cricket etc, I’d rather turn the TV off. I find the whole notion and endeavour of it utterly pointless.

[rodericb]

Tyre Tread said:

Me circa 1987: Mobile phones will never catch on.

Mind you, Thomas Watson, President of IBM said "“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”"

That second one is not such a stretch when you consider that every company is tonguing to have all of their "computing" sitting on cloud services such as AWS.

[RDMcG]

Hoofy said:

Is he sitting on a fat profit or did he buy more when it was $30k and now regrets it?

He WAS, and is still well ahead but of course has gone down with the market.

[98elise]

rodericb said:

Tyre Tread said:

Me circa 1987: Mobile phones will never catch on.

Mind you, Thomas Watson, President of IBM said "“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”"

That second one is not such a stretch when you consider that every company is tonguing to have all of their "computing" sitting on cloud services such as AWS.

In my living room alone there are probably 10 computers of one sort or another (games machines, media devices, tablets, phones laptops etc).

All told we probably have 20 computers in the house, and that's not counting various redundant devices in cupboards.

[generationx]

Social media in the style of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc etc.

I probably should sign up but I simply can't be arsed. The nearest I come to is participating occasionally on PH.

[anonymous-user]

RDMcG said:

Hoofy said:

Is he sitting on a fat profit or did he buy more when it was $30k and now regrets it?

He WAS, and is still well ahead but of course has gone down with the market.

Used to work with a guy in a warehouse, long after we had both moved on - him into cyber security - and during first lockdown, he got into crypto currency mining.
Told me how great it was, how he could give up his day job and make a great living not even getting out of bed etc.

He's gone suspiciously quiet recently

[captain.scarlet]

I think I've missed the Biscoff trend. I wish I'd taken advantage of it and come up with a dish with Biscoff in it but every dish/food imaginable now has a Biscoff variant and at double the price of the standard non-Biscoff original.

I should've learned my lesson from Oreo, Cheeto and Kinder Bueno fads of the past.

I'm determined to create my own trend now and propose combining all of the above for the ultimate sickly mega foodie fad experience.

Otherwise, a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer equivalent fad on the sweet side and Mini Cheddar equivalent fad on the savoury side. And keeping it local as well whilst taking the brands to the global stage. No American or Italian brands need apply.

Aside from that, Bitcoin I've noted has been on a slow decline. Possible to get one for just shy of £17,000 based on the current BTC to GBP exchange rate, but bearing in mind it peaked at about £34,000 not too long ago before the slow downwards crash.

I'm therefore in two minds about whether it'll ever recover if people are selling up sooner or whether it will pick up as a spoil for the wealthy. In either scenario, given its daily and weekly volatility it would seem that day-trading can be more lucrative than sitting it out for a decade. Still very high risk though.

Edited by captain.scarlet on Wednesday 13th July 08:29

[Spare tyre]

I don’t do the whole social media thing

Generally anyone worth knowing isn’t the sort of person to upload a picture of their Nando’s, shopping bags, plane seat etc etc

[GroundZero]

When something approaches anything close to a trend I quickly walk away from it. I dislike being part of the so called "in crowd" and will also actively avoid branded items for the sake of wishing to display the brand to others.
So I think I've successfully avoided most of the trends/fashions that many will talk of. And in the process I've likely saved thousands in my bank (albeit the savings were never the motivation, I just hate people copying others for the sake of feeling "part of the gang", and its as if anybody actually cares if you are or not).