Trendroids

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a word that has been crawling around in my mental attic ever since. The word is “Trendroid.” Unfortunately, I really don’t know what it means . LOL. Even more unfortunately, I did not take note of where I first met the term, as it’s context may have a provided a clue to its meaning. My best guess is that I came across the word while immersing myself in the swamp of information debating the relative merits of artificial intelligence. You will search in vain to find it in any online dictionary. So you will have to forgive me in advance as I attempt to base our deliberations on what I think the word means.

The word “droid” is the shortened version of the word android. It was first coined by philosopher Albertus Magnus and denotes an automaton. An automaton is a machine that resembles and is able to simulate the actions of a human being. A droid is basically a robot.

The word trend has several meanings, but since 2015 it most commonly means to “to be currently prevalent, popular, or fashionable; esp. (of a topic or subject matter) to generate a large amount of social media activity over a short time span; to become popular or prevalent on social media networks.”

So if you put those two definitions together, a “Trendroid” is a person who has become so imprisoned by what is popular that essentially act like a robot. A “Trendroid” is a person who is captivated by the current. A “Trendroid” is a person who is incarcerated by the immediate. A “Trendroid” is a person who is confined to the contemporary. A “Trendroid” is a person is who is pawn of the present.

The great Christian apologist C.S. Lewis advised us to read “old books.” He argued that

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.

And not only should we read old books, but we should also listen to old music, watch old movies, and talk to old(er) people. Otherwise, we will become trapped by the trends of our time. It was to prevent us from becoming prisoners of the present that the apostle Paul penned these words in Romans 12:1-2. As Christians, he urged us to

Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

There are forces afoot in our in world that don’t want us to think. They simply want us to like or follow, click yes, press buy, and swipe to the right (or left). But don’t let the most recent trend trap you.

Stay current.

Live in the moment. But don’t live for the moment.