The Tipping Point

"The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell explains how society's outlook on popular things are strongly influenced by small trends that start up. For instance, he uses the example of Hush Puppies. They became popular due to the sole fact that kids began to wear them, otherwise nobody would wear them to begin with. Then he discusses how people know how smoking is bad for them but still have no idea why because they aren't well-informed. It obviously shows maturity because there is an age restriction. But, in reality, it shows just how dumb our society really is. If people can't read on the package that smoking kills them, there really isn't much else to do. Smoking isn't much of a trend, it's an epidemic. TV and media have a ridiculous amount of influence on peoples' thoughts, habits, and pretty much everything else in their everyday lives. Kids are exposed to these little ideas that increase their knowledge, interest and possible curiosity on the subject matter. There seems to be an idea that teenagers feel like there's a novelty in thinking it's fun to do bad things.