IHSS toy blog and tipping point discussion

I found the tipping point reading quite an interesting read. Recently (As in since half a year ago) i've been thinking a little too much about trends. Most of the time my head creates an in-depth analysis of trends during times where I have nothing else to think about. I automatically remember this stupid trend someone told me about and try to imagine what kind of appeal it has and why, out of all the cool things, make something like that popular, and why would people accept it so easily. The reading identified points I had thought of before but in a more fleshed out and professional way than how my brain mapped it out for me. The author's first point was it has to be contagious behaviour, but he never explained what makes something contagious. as trends can be anything, from clothing, valuables, challenges, to actions, behaviours, and accessories. He didn't go in-depth about why certain things are contagious and why others are not, and that is one thing I hope to see is mentioned further on in the reading. 

Like I said, I am not one to "Keep up" even at a young age, I was not aware of trends, popular topics, marketing tactics, or the concept of gendered toys. So naturally, i would want to play with whatever I saw around me. Most of the toys and games I played with were toys my parents bought. My parents didn't buy toys that were solely for entertainment uses, they never said that but these are just observations i made, they gave me toys that encourage problem solving, building things, and puzzles. But there was one toy that I always carried around. It was a stuffed pig, one of the pigs from the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf. 

My memory is pretty bad so I don't remember why I liked it, how I got it or what I thought of it, but I do remember how I felt, so I'll just expand on feeling and what I think of it now. I feel like it was pretty normal for children to carry around their toys or dolls they liked, and any child could, it wasn't subjected to only one gender, nor was it shamed upon. For the most part, I think I just carried it around maybe thinking of it as a little companion. And when I saw another kid carrying a toy around it made me feel cool. So as a child I thought every kid who carried a toy around was cool which made me think I'm cool and made breaking the habit of carrying this doll around a lot harder. Like I said I'm not very good with trends so I wouldn't know how other kids felt or thought about this. Often times when I'd spot a kid holding a toy it would be a new connection in the making. Because I could physically see we had something in common it was easier to befriend them.