Birds of a feather plank together
One trend that was particularly popular over the past year was the planking phenomenon. Planking is lying down stiff and straight like a board on a variety of surfaces. These surfaces could be mundane such as beds, chairs, or tables. Or they could be slightly more dangerous items such as cars or ledges. Planking as a trend caught on very quickly and also seemed to be over as quickly as it started. The relation between the number of people planking and how long planking was popular can be explained by information cascades.
Chapter 16 of our book explains the effect of our choices on others and part of this is information cascades. An information cascade occurs when one person chooses an option because other people are doing it. An example of this would be getting an iPhone because you would like to iMessage your friends. This relates to planking because the entire appeal is that it’s what’s hot and now. People being confronted by these planking pictures whether on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram may feel some sort of social pressure to conform and take their own planking picture. This is how something like planking can spread even though some people are getting hurt doing so.
-DC
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/05/20/despite-deaths-injuries-internet-planking-fad-continues/