Long term change rarely if ever comes from short term trends, but long term change can cause the short term trends. But let's call "long term change" just "change" and the other "trends."

Trends, of course, can lead to change, but not nearly as often as the reverse.

Look at the Internet (distinct from the World Wide Web). In 1967, when it was first dreamed up to maximize computer time available on the East and West Coasts of the US (NOT in case of nuclear war!) there was no idea that it would eventually permit email, FTP, and all of the rest. IPv4 was considered a basically infinite number of addresses. And it changed the way some universities and businesses worked. This change leaked out and in the '70s grew to The Well and The Source and others. By the mid-70s libraries in the US were using more modems than the airlines. Collaboration became rampant. And then HTMP and HTTP were invented and the WWW was unleashed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN and everything changed.

Notice that the WWW is part of the Internet, although we use the terms interchangeably. The change, in this case, was relatively slow, but as as more and more people became aware of the possibilities the pace quickened. Trends began to sprout like branches from a tree and like such, some withered (used Netscape Navigator lately?) and died and others flourished.

The trick is to know which is which. Netscape was purchased by AOL, who still holds the rights. Firefox, on the other hand, is very much alive and well and owned by Mozilla -- a collaborative software endeavor. Microsoft has recently pretty much given up on Internet Explorer.

What's the next trend? Will it become a maker of change?

Got me. I'd rather think about why cats are so popular on the WWW.