Move along

[aroraborealis]

In any social trend, there are phases and groups. There are the groundbreakers, the early adopters, the mainstream adopters, the sticks-in-the-mud. The average person probably spends most of his or her time in the middle groups, but probably also has areas of interest or disinterest that swing them into groundbreaking and sticking in the mud.

It's easy for me to see places where I'm a stick in the mud, but harder to see any where I'm a groundbreaker. Is this common? Do you see yourself as a groundbreaker about anything? If so, what? If almost-but-not-quite, what keeps you from it? What about stick-in-the-mud-ness? Is that easier or harder for you to see?

Comments

I am an island; O K maybe just a peninsula.

[sarahshevett.livejournal.com]

I think "ground breaking" pretty much means that I don't have a "social group" and that's the way it's always been for me.
I've always been outside of the mainstream and therefore had my share of ostracization and torment.
As a child I was always the target in my neighborhood and at school as I dressed and acted differently. Strangely, all I wanted was to be able to conform, but I never ever could.

And I am not sure that I'd call my own personal trends "ground breaking" as that is not the intent. It's just me.
I do what I want. I come up with my own ideas since I don't really have a "social circle" to draw from and I never really have. That's pretty much the loner lifestyle.
Many things I have done or developed have become major huge trands. If I could only figure out a way to make money with this.

Unfortunately when you are the "first" to do something, it usually isn't embraced, its reviled. Until that 100th monkey discovers it.
By then I am usually on to something else by years.

Example: I wondered ( in 1977) if I could pierce the top of my ear. I had never seen anyone with a pierced top of their ear. So I did it.
I did it myself.

Goat cheese in America 20 years ago? forget it.

I invented a haircut in 1980 that was totally ridiculed. I liked the way it kept the hair out of my face yet I still had long hair to play with. Kind of like a built in headband, I made the line from ear to ear across the top of my head.
Now it's known as the Fe-mullet.