Here again, though, it's a social trend already well under way.
But (literally) overnight, Cancer Research UK turned the organic social trend into a fundraising whirlwind.
The ease with which people can arrange their deaths has shocked Japan and underlines a disturbing social trend.
(I say this as an observation about an encouraging social trend, not a criticism, by any means).
But the growing reliance that many Puerto Ricans have on pasteleras like Ms. Quiros also underscores a shifting social trend.
But the film, which helped label this generation, does what our whole culture does -- portrays a social trend as a personal choice.
And yet, it was worse to consider the murders for what they were: a social trend, an epiphenomenon, a case of bloody mass misogyny.
But while al-Qaida's form of radical Islamism appealed to a minority of discontented individuals, it never represented a dominant social trend in the Middle East.
But it was what Gandhi set his sights on, pitting himself against every political and social trend of the past two hundred years.
Perhaps the biggest social trend contributing to the gentrification of Montauk is something out of its control, the growing popularity of surfing and the surfing lifestyle.
There is, however, another reason for the new policy prominence of economists: it is part of a broader social trend, the triumph of the nerds.
