Pilates, Livestrong bracelets and Razor scooters are all signs of the time in America. Popping collars is no different; a popped collar is pop culture ... bad pop culture.

Popping collars is not a huge deal. This is not a life-or-death matter. It is nothing more than another trend bound to cycle through society, then blow over. In a few fashion seasons, the popped collar is going to be a thing of the past.

Taken at face value, the popped collar is simply a choice people make in the morning on whether or not to stand up their collars. But the problem with popped collars is that they amplify something about our generation and society.

Granted, collar poppers may be saying their collar cannot possibly reflect something more than a fashion statement. No one is trying to tell you it is wrong that you feel the need to flip up your collar. But, it would be nice if you knew exactly what your popped collar does mean.

The collar popping frenzy became an apparent trend in the spring of this year.

For the average mall or internet shopper, which is what most of us are, we first saw the trend from the Abercrombie and Fitch models and mannequins. Before anyone knew it, the collars were popped on the models, dummies and employees of American Eagle and Aeropostale, the 'trendy' stores for most of our generation.

Just having the models, dummies and employees pop their collars led this 80's fashion statement to swiftly spread into mainstream young America. It is surprising how fast customers and want-to-be customers of these stores changed their habits with their clothes in just one fashion season.

What this means is stores like Abercrombie can quickly manipulate pop culture to be what they want. Quite possibly the saddest thing, however, is how pervasive Abercrombie's power is over our society.

At Sunday night mass a few weeks ago, I was dumbstruck to see an elderly woman with white hair, wrinkles and thick glasses with the collar of her polo shirt popped.

Sure, I should give her the benefit of the doubt and think it was popped by accident. I tried to have faith that this was a mistake, but this collar was too perfect to be a mistake. It was clearly perpendicular to the ground and stood straight and tall in all its 'glory.'

The collar popping is just a trend. The problem is that it took only one fashion season to manipulate many individuals of our generation to change their long-held habits.

Sure, maybe collar popping individuals have not been manipulated, but at the very least they have been influenced to change habits they have had for years.

In the end, the problem with the popped collar phenomenon is it is an explicit, everyday sign of how much power pop culture has over our generation.