If your peer group looks anything like mine, recognizing the importance of, say, RSS a couple of years ago would have set you apart as someone whose vision could be trusted by your peers. And local peer group is all that matters for cool. Ninety percent of high school is realizing that catching up with the global cool is something you don't have the resources for, and instead finding a local cool that works for you. You heard it here first. The key is that it involves dynamic culture.
Trends come and go, and come back again.
Fads rise and fall, and we need to buy low and sell high. Corporations spend millions on getting in and out at the right times. They speculate on the meme market, buying a trend small and selling it back to us for real dollars when it's big. MTV is day-trading our culture. Chances are, some executive paid for research three months prior, and upped the hip of some TV show or commercial by letting you see it.