What’s next? Brick walls?

I Googled the words fence-plowing today and there were 63 news mentions (now 64), so far mainly in the greater New York area. Fence- plowing involves humans (well, kids) hurtling themselves into fences until they knock them down.

The first documented fence-plowing episode appeared on YouTube and so the fence-plowing craze begins to spread. Five teens have been arrested for copycat plowing on Long Island. The creator of plowing has appeared on NY and national news shows; the NY Times further legitimized the phenomenon and today a second day story delved further into the idea of teens blasting their most outrageous behaviors online with the headline“Teens Misbehaving for All Online to Watch.”

Fads spread. They spread fast without the Internet, faster with it. As kids document their lives, the dumb pranks they pull off without thinking too hard about the repercussions (in this case the fence-plowers were caught because they posted their escapades on the web) will cause things to spread even faster.

My guess is that copycat fence-plowing will spread to other parts of the country pretty quickly. Not unlike swallowing goldfish, drinking cough syrup, or other high-risk pranks, just better documented.

Hopefully, the fad will be over as quickly as it spreads.