As a part of social experiment and economy project, Mandy Millican’s senior Economics classes this year have brought Silly Bandz back from the dead and are reviving the trend.
Recently these rubber bracelets have been displayed all throughout campus on the wrists of many students and have been a hot item to trade and talk about.
Millican explained that the purpose of the experiment was to show to her students the importance of supply and demand and to show economics in the real world. By her own students participating and pioneering the revival, they are able to actively participate in their own learning through and active and engaging manner.
“One of the things that can change the demand of a product is the tastes and preferences of people and it can shift the demand to make it a greater demand and society can change based on that. We thought we would see if we could watch it happen in real life,” said Millican.
The trend is gaining momentum not only within the walls of Steinbrenner among peers and grade levels but Millican explains that Alonso High School has received word of the trend and that hopefully Sunlake High School is soon to follow. Not only that, but the students goal is to infiltrate colleges and reach that demographic.
To ensure that her classes are credited as the masterminds behind the revival, Millican took a video in what she dubs, “the origin video” as proof that her class was the one who kick-started the craze.
In order to kick the Silly Bandz phenomena off, Millican ordered over three hundred Silly Bandz and had many of her students bring in the bracelets from home so that others could see them and join in the trend.
She explains that they had different methods of spreading the word and getting the Silly Bandz out there. There was the traditional trading method and handing them out to students who had none but they also placed them in popular places where they would be seen and students could take them to further legitimize the trend. These are places such as on the door handles of classrooms.
“The idea behind them was to wear them and start passing them out to see if it would catch on. We also put them on some door handles of classrooms. We passed them out to freshmen and sophomores and so forth. We were trying to see if it would change the demand,” said Millican.
Silly Bandz were specifically chosen for this experiment. They were chosen because it was previously a very popular trend and they hype had already been there. Also it is cost effective and it was easy for them to get the word out.
Other similar projects have been done by previous Senior classes with regards to trend revival. Fanny pack Friday was a previous trend that was not very popular and did not catch on to have the same effect as this trend has.
“Even the students who know about it want to trade. The seniors are very enthusiastic. I have a group of kids who are very involved and the leaders of the school and when they are doing it, it was easier to spread things around. The thing is they also love it. They are having so much fun,” said Millican.
Lauren Johnston // Backpage Editor
