Trends and fads come and go -- some so fast that you may even miss them. Here are five things we hope will end soon:
1. Our love affair with kale.
Seriously people, this is a vegetable that used to decorate salad bars. Then it hired itself a mega-PR firm and suddenly got rebranded as the Greatest Living Vegetable Ever. It is ascribed supernatural powers that help your heart, your bones, your skin, your five senses, and if consumed in sufficient quantities, prevents wrinkles and stops aging, keeping you looking forever 21 -- like that's a good thing. I'm sure it also makes you grow taller, ends constipation, and cures acne.
The problem is kale tastes like something that should be a salad bar decoration. The good news is that while kale's reign may not quite be over, bok choy is about to burst on to the scene as the new miracle vegetable, says one of our favorite foodies, Dorothy Reinhold, who blogs at ShockinglyDelicious.com. Bok choy actually tastes good. Kale, you've had your 15 minutes.
2. Pretending that the economy has enough jobs.
Anyone besides me who thinks those monthly unemployment claims numbers are a bunch of hooey? They count up the number of people who are filing for unemployment in any given week and if it's less than the week before, they pop open champagne and start singing "Happy Days Are Here Again." Happy days aren't here again by a long shot. Some people have been out of work so long that they don't qualify for unemployment benefits anymore, so they don't get counted. Others have stopped looking altogether. Many have gone underground: They work at freelance gigs, stringing together enough part time work to barely get by.
We will have enough jobs in the economy when people are no longer pitifully afraid to ask for a raise. We will have enough jobs in the economy when there are no longer 200 applicants for every opening. We will have enough jobs in the economy when everyone who needs one, has one.
3. Cellphone use in restaurants.
Slowly but surely, we are starting to treat people who use their phones in restaurants as pariahs. We did the same social ostracization thing with smokers and it worked beautifully, so no reason to expect it won't work with obnoxious cellphone users -- and that is what it is: obnoxious.
An alternative would be for restaurants to provide a cellphone check -- you know, the way they have coat checks and hat checks? Let's start with the assumption that you want neither your winter coat or your smartphone to burden you while you enjoy your meal and company.
4. Employers who encourage you to disconnect but keep sending emails after work hours.
Let's follow the lead of the French on this one. A new labor agreement in France means that employees must ignore their bosses' work emails once they are out of the office and relaxing at home - even on their company-issued smartphones.
This is one of those "it's about time" moments. If a boss encourages workers to disconnect from the office, that encouragement must go hand-in-hand with establishing an office policy where managers don't send off-hours texts and emails. Otherwise, it's just giving lip service to the idea that workers are more productive when they can recharge.
5. Selfies.
This feels like we're grabbing at the low-hanging fruit, but the word needs to be spread that that we've gone overboard with these self-photos we take and post on social media. The basic premise is flawed: Not everything looks better with you posed in front of it.
A study from three business schools in Europe found that people who post more selfies have shallow relationships with people. (They mean real-life friends, not virtual ones.) "Increased frequency of sharing photographs of the self, regardless of the type of target sharing the photographs, is related to a decrease in intimacy," explains the report. There you have it: the more selfies you post, the less intimate your relationships are in real life.
So, still want to post?
Earlier on Huff/Post50: