Interviews

Interview two different individuals who have a personal memory of experiencing the item. Document the exact words (or some reasonable approximation) of the person you are interviewing.

1) Who were the first people this person remembers using/interacting with/talking about the item before them?

2) Were these people/this person well-known by a lot of people?

3) Why did this person participate in this trend. [If he/she did not participate himself/herself, ask why they think others did participate in the trend.]

4) Ask what he/she remembers about how popular the item was. Was it something that the person saw everywhere in society? Was it something that gained widespread use in a particular group?

5) Ask what was the person’s memory of how quickly the trend spread? Did it seem like overnight many people were participating in the trend or did there seem to be a gradual adoption?

6) Ask if he/she remembers any particular advertisement associated with the item. Ask him/her to describe the details of the advertisement he/she remembers.

7) Ask the person if he/she associates something that was going on at the time with the trending item in question.

8) Ask the person if he/she remembers the trend before it became big? Ask the person for his/her impression of the impact the item had on people before and after the item “tipped.”