I’m always fascinated by new trends, but can hardly pretend to be on the cutting edge of any of them. It seems that the only trends I get caught up in are old ones that have been revived. I have fully embraced the latest fashion for wide-legged trousers, largely because I loved them when I was a teenager and had mourned their fall from grace ever since. Skinny jeans aren’t particularly flattering in my view. Whenever I see photos of the supermodel Kate Moss in her bone-hugging jeans, which is often, I always think she’d be so much comfier in a pair of nice roomy trousers. Although I might just be projecting here.
It’s not just fashion: lifestyle trends seem to be popping up and fading away weekly thanks to influencers and social media. There was the ‘girl dinner’ fad, when young women posted photos of the random assortment of food they ate when they were alone. I gather that there’s now a ‘boy dinner’, which seems to consist largely of slabs of meat with chips. Known also as what your husband eats when you’re not there.
Which brings me to ‘friction maxxing’ – a recent trend that rather appeals to the latent puritan in me. The theory is that our lives have become far too easy and convenient and we need to force ourselves to make a bit more effort. Much can be said about how incredibly inconvenient life used to be in pre-internet days. We were forced to travel to shops to buy things; go to the library to consult reference books; use the telephone to communicate with people; pay bills by writing cheques and posting them; even prepare and cook meals rather than simply heating things up. The list is endless. And as for travel, I can barely remember how we managed at all.
It wasn’t considered inconvenient then, just life. But the friction-maxxers think we’ve gone too far and everything’s just become too easy. The theory is that, by removing so much of the effort once needed just to live, we have become less resilient, less able to concentrate and less engaged with the world. Lazy even. I do vaguely recall when life involved more effort, but I’m not sure it was any more meaningful or if I want to go back to it.
So, how are we supposed to max that friction exactly? Apparently, we should play records rather than stream music. Go to the shops instead of ordering online. Use road signs and a map rather than GPS. Read a newspaper instead of scrolling on our phones. Write our own emails rather than using ChatGPT. Make dinner from actual ingredients rather than heating something up in the microwave, or tossing some food on a plate and calling it girl dinner. As I said, there is a latent puritan in me and I enjoy walking to the market, growing my own herbs and darning holey socks. But I’m also quite lazy, so will never again play a record. Or delete Instagram. How else would I discover new fads?
On balance, I think I’m going to sit this one out, but I’m thoroughly looking forward to the next trend. Especially if it’s yet another re-working of an old one. I’m thinking it’s time for curly perms to make a comeback…
In 1977 I went on a cycling tour of the low countries. My buddies and I stayed in Youth Hostels which we had pre-booked. In 1979, Caroline and I went in a VW van round Scandinavia and stayed at pre-booked camp sites.
The thing is, I can’t exactly remember how we pre-booked all these venues. I think we wrote to them all individually and they confirmed back by post. What a lot of work for everyone involved!
It’s strange because I can’t remember how we booked either. I think we did write to confirm in advance, but also just turned up in many cases and hoped for the best. I don’t think I ever booked a youth hostel. The plan was to sleep in the train station if there was nowhere else! Way too much friction!