SELF-LEARNING MODULE

Trends, Networks, and Critical Thinking

in the 21st Century
1ST QUARTER
(S.Y. 2021-2022)

MODULE 1
Trends and Fads

CONTENT AND PERFORMANCE

STANDARDS

Content Standards
The learner understands the
emergence of trends and patterns.

Performance Standards
The learner will be able to
derive an idea from instances and
present this idea through a 100-word
essay, artwork, and other graphic
representations.

Learning Competencies

1. Explain the process on how to spot

a trend HUMSS_MCT12- Ia-b-2

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not learn on your own understanding. In all
your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3: 5–6

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 MODULAR DISTANCE LEARNING EXPECTATIONS
HONOR
1. Ask or contact your subject teacher for help, or any concern regarding your module during office hours.
2. Follow health protocol.
3. Abide school’s social media guidelines at all times.
4. Be respectful. (e.g. use polite words when talking or asking questions to your teacher)
5. Pass your answer sheets on time.

SERVE
1. Bring the checklist every time you pass your answer sheets.
2. Take good care of the books, modules, answer sheets and other school learning materials.
3. Use answer sheet in answering module.

GROW
1. Answer your module with your utmost honesty and responsibility. (e.g. having other people answer your module
and copying content on the internet without proper citation, copying your classmates’ answers)
2. Read and follow instructions carefully before doing each given task
2. Compile your modules by subject quarterly.
3. Take initiative to communicate with your teacher if necessary.
4. Be prepared and presentable during home visitation.
5. Be punctual.
6. Maintain a decent hairstyle.

How are you going to Learn?

Explore
This icon signals an exploration or introduction of the topic. It also include pre-test that you
need to answer to determine how much you know about the topic. At every pre-test, you will
find a question to answer. It may also signal for review before jumping into the next lesson
or serves as the starter.

Motivation
Acquisition
This icon
This icon signals
signals important
introductory activity that
knowledge andneeded to understand
skills needed a new
to acquire topic.
in the discipline. Carefully
study the concepts, principles, or processes discussed in the text. Serves as the discussion of
the lesson. It also include activities to check understanding.
Enrichment
This icon is a signal for exercises or activity that you need to complete. It also measure on
how well you understand the discussion.

Make Meaning

This icon signals the deeper understanding of principles, generalizations, and big ideas of the
Transfer
discipline. It also includes activities to assess the higher level thinking skills.
This icon signals learning to new situation. The task or performance activity that needed to do
Objectives:or perform or use the learning in real-life situation. The quality of output in the task will show
the extent
 Identify of your
and explain understanding
Trends and Fads. of the topic. It is also signals for an assessment. You need to
 Draw an innovation of a simple
be sure and careful in doing product or itemneatly
it. Write that you think
and will turn
legibly andinto
makefad.sure to perform the task
well.
What do you need to know?

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 Our world is vastly and dramatically changing. Natural phenomena and human activities are the drivers
of these changes. Our responses to these changes are manifested in how our behaviors, lifestyles, ways of thinking,
and, in the broader front, our social relations as well as our economic and political activities. Because we adapt to the
changing social environment, we continue to learn and create new forms of knowledge and products for our survival
in this complex world.

The agenda of modernity expanded across the globe through colonization, eventually leading to
globalization.

Directions: Make a survey of things you use every day, from personal accessories to gadgets. Reflect on
your belongings through the following questions. Write your answer on the ANSWERSHEET provided.

1. Why do you use them?

_______________________________________________________________________________________
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2. What specific needs are addressed by these things?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
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3. How often do you replace or upgrade them?
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4. What compels you to replace or upgrade these things?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
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Information Sheet 1

FADS - are objects or behaviors that achieve short-lived popularity but fade away.

H overboards, loom bands, Tamagotchi pets,

designer coffee lattes, Candy Crush,
Pokémon Go—these are just some products that became
popular in recent and not-so-recent memory. Most of the
time, they come as consumer products bearing a definite
price tag, touted in advertisements as “cool” or as the
new “in” thing. They are purchased by a significant
fraction of the population and inhabit the consciousness
of an even greater number of people. Every generation
has its own set of fads.

Why do some products become fads?

 Some products are able to get a huge slice of the market.
 The process that make a product or a practice into a fad may be more complex than mere sales or its
following.
There have been various attempts to explain fads:
 Karl and Shapiro (1985) – describe it according to the theory of network externalities, where the utility of a
product increases when more people use it
 Cascade Theory – proposed by Bikhchandini et. al. (1992)

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 o Information cascades happen when a potential consumer or user abandons his or her own
information and defer to the decision made by other individuals. (Example: a mob gathered around a
food park in the city is enough to entice a group of newcomers to join the crowd.)
Marketing specialists agree that the lifespan of a regular product consists of four stages:
1. Introduction – the product is introduced to the market, there is an information drive as the sales are still low,
and its market share still is insignificant.
2. Growth Stage – as the information drive gains mileage, the product sales steadily rise and a significant
market share is achieved.
3. Maturity Stage – the product is established and the procedures or manufacturers aim to keep the market
share through innovations and improvements.
4. Decline – the market may dwindle due to competition or lack of innovation

How much have you learned?

Directions: Identify three most recent fads you can remember. Examine how each fad came to rise in
popularity and build a hypothesis on why it faded away. To enrich your recollection, try to interview peers or family
members who have encountered or subscribed to the same fad, compare it with your own experiences.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
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Information Sheet 2

TRENDS
- is a new item or a practice that stabilizes and transforms into a habit, a lifestyle, or an
enduring product.
This introduction of products with planned obsolescence – a strategy that ensures that a product will soon
be rendered out-of-date and must be replaced with a newer model – rules the spirit of innovation in today’s profit-
driven market.

(Example: Mobile Phone)

 it was an improvement from the land-based
telephones because it is a more efficient and expansive form of
communication that does not tie the user to a gadget that is
pinned to the wall.
 The next stage of its development saw the
integration of a texting feature, introduced in 1992 and into
full maturity in 1997, as the world discovered how communication
can be made more personal and immediate.
 The smartphones, then came trumping all older phone
models in favor of a multitasking gadget that appropriates some
of the computer’s functions.
Some trends seek to innovate lifestyles and find practical ways to solve social issues and improve our well-
being. It could be a response to the problems that have confronted groups or societies.
A significant social trend is best understood a series of related events that emanates from a range of causes,
manifests a continuity over a period of time, and rebounds to significant social, cultural, economic, and political
changes.
Other examples of trends, both local and global:
 The rise of OFWs – since the 70’s, a good number of Filipinos have turned to the Middle East and the US to
seek for greener pastures. This trend has continued because of severe economic depression, political
repression, and lack of viable job opportunities in the Philippines.
 Changing Roles of Women – back then, women are mostly confined at home. However, the trend nowadays
is for women to be in the workplace to augment the incomes of their husbands. (From Rappler, obtained from
Philippine Statistic Authority: there are slightly more female OFWs than male OFWs.)
 Religious Fundamentalism – groups are often formed based on a belief in a teaching of a sacred religious
leader, god, or prophet. What makes it a trend is how the practice has been sustained throughout humanity’s
history.

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 Trends are varied and its significance is best determined on how it bears on the lives of the people as well as
the-directions that policy and governance undertake. It is also best to determine the extent of the effects – how many,
how long, and how deep. For instance, the religious was initiated by Islamic fundamentalists in Muslim-dominated
countries has developed the trend of refugees fleeing their homeland and crossing borders to get a safer land. Women
gaining more spaces in the workplace also had an impact on the development of nuclear families.

Thinking through Trends and Fads

Trends and Fads mirror the changing world and our capacity to
respond to cultural, social, political, economic, and geographical changes.
Our reactions to trends and fads allow us to discover latent talents and
develop faculties resulting to the creation and reproduction of things and
behaviors crucial to human existence and way of life.

Today, global connectivity through the use of different forms of

social media, encourages more people to make and remake trends and fads
regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status across the globe.
Social Media has become a democratic playing field producing
trends and fads affecting all aspects of life. Such phenomenon calls for all people – especially the young generation –
to develop awareness, creativity, sensitivity and critical thinking in order to analyze and examine disabling effects of
trends and fads.
As members of a complex world, people at the margins are challenged not only to subscribe to innovations
and changes but to also produce trends that will allow them to their lives.

Activity 1

A. Identification
Understanding the difference between trends and fads.
Thing/Behaviors Trend or Fad? Explanation
1. Human Needs

2. Historical Forces

3. Globalization

4. Digital connectivity
and Social Media

B. Critical Thinking
Short Response: Read each question carefully. Write the answer required by each item on the ANSWER
SHEET provided.
1. How does history reflect the development of fads and trends?
2. How is a fad illustrated through a life cycle of a product? Give concrete example.
3. What are the challenges in sustaining a trend? How can these challenges be encountered?
4. What is the most significant local or global trend today? Explain your answer.

Activity 2

Directions: Draw an important product or item you regularly use inside the box below. Add extra features to this item
if you think that it could turn into a fad. Provide a brief explanation of the innovation that you have made. Write your
answer on the ANSWER SHEET provided.

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Date of Submission: Aug. 20, 2021 Module 1
Trends, Networks, and Critical
ANSWER SHEET Thinking in the 21st Century

Name:_____________________________________________ Date:________________ Score:_______

Directions: Make a survey of things you use every day, from personal accessories to gadgets. Reflect on your
belongings through the following questions.
1. ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

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 3. ____________________________________________________________________________________
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4. ____________________________________________________________________________________
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How much have you learned?

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Activity 1

A. Identification
Understanding the difference between trends and fads.
Trend or Fad? Explanation
1.

2.

3.

4.

B. Critical Thinking
1. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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2. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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3. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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4. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________________________________
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Activity 2