Stop! Look up from your paper and look around . . . What do you notice? Maybe you are in a classroom full of students and you see a lady walk into the room wearing skinny jeans. You also see half the class are using laptops, madly taking notes, and there is probably a dude in front of you playing Starcraft 2.

What you have just noticed are all trends. A trend is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a line indicating the general course or tendency of something” Trends come in and out of style; they are the “in” thing for a while and then are forgotten down the road. In honour of the trends that you notice everyday, I give you the top 12 trends of fall 2010.

1. Okay, so first on the list are skinny jeans. Look to your right, now to your left — look around in general and start counting the amount of people wearing skinny jeans of different sorts. I must admit this is a trend that I have fallen into myself. But whether your jeans be skinny cut, ultra skinny or long skinny jeans that are meant to be rolled up at the bottom, you can be assured that you and another quarter of the student body are looking very good in your skinny jeans.

2. Sticking with the idea of jeans, we have the store bought jeans with holes. Now, this one is beyond me. Why would you pay money for clothes that already have holes in them? As far as my mother taught me, those are the clothes you throw out. But, for the sake of sticking with the latest trend, you buy your pre-torn jeans and wear them proudly. Now, if your jeans happen to be skinny jeans and to have holes in them, you are now twice as trendy as the rest of us.

3. Off the topic of jeans but sticking with clothing we have the “half-on” toque. You know, it is the toque that you feel the incredible urge to pull off someone’s head or to at least put it on them the correct way . . . But at least they are wearing a toque at all, right?

4. How many of you own University of Manitoba garb? From hoodies to clipboards and everything in between, you can have all your university garb needs met at the University of Manitoba Bookstore.

5. Once again, sticking with clothing, we have neon coloured hoodies and v-necks. Made famous by the large amount of indie musicians who have started to sport these articles of clothing, they have found themselves immersed in our culture.

6. While we are talking about bright colours . . . Look at your shoes. Shades of white, black and grey are the dominant colours of shoes, but the bright and vibrant colours have managed to sneak their way onto our feet.

7. On to accessories. We have coming in at number seven the fake Ray-Ban sunglasses. You know the ones made famous by both Bob Dylan and Buddy Holly? Yeah, those ones. And guess what?! You can even get them in neon colours adding again to the in factor they produce.

8. Do you have a flip phone? I do for the next two months. In case you have not noticed though, the new trend is to have a smartphone or at least a phone that won’t take five minutes to load your Facebook page.

9. Speaking of Facebook, social networking is totally on this list! Nearly each and every one of us have some form of social networking account, but as this topic is overused in different forms of media, I won’t even go into it.

10. Remember that guy who is playing Starcraft 2 in front of you on his laptop? Well, he is apart of a growing number of students on campus with laptops. It is not satisfactory anymore to have a desktop; the efficiency of the laptop is simply overwhelming.

11. And to carry your new laptop you need a bag! Seeing as it is no longer trendy to have a backpack with wheels that you pull around like a suitcase, we have returned to the classic double strap over the shoulders bag; the same kind we used when we were small children.

12. Last but not least on the top 12 trends of fall 2010 is the bicycle. Yes, it is now apparently cool to ride a bike. Over the past few years we have been bombarded with earth conservation messages and it seems like they have put more of us on our bikes.

From jeans to brightly coloured articles of clothing and right down to our technology, we see a large amount of trends that are currently on the rise or have already established themselves. Whether you see it as a “cool” list or “conformity,” list these are just a few of many trends that are prevalent today in our current culture.