hey everybody welcome to this b1 english listening practice video you can use this video to practice your listening and comprehension as i speak before we start remember to download the listening time podcast and become a member at patreon.comlisteningtime to receive my listening practice seminars bonus podcast episodes and my sound training videos okay today i'm going to talk about fads from the past first of all we need to define the word fad a fad is something that becomes really popular really fast and then eventually becomes forgotten for a while it seems like everyone is excited about this thing and follows the trend but after a while they move on to the next big thing often this is because people are more interested in it just because everyone else is you don't necessarily love this thing you just get caught up in the excitement so let's go through some popular fads from the past one of the fans i remember as a kid was healy's shoes these are shoes that have wheels on the heel of the shoe the word heel just refers to the back part of your foot so tons of kids started wearing these shoes and they would kind of skate around as they walked skateboarding and other wheel sports have always been considered to be pretty cool so i think that's why healeys became so popular i have to admit that i thought they were pretty cool but i didn't end up buying them these shoes still exist today and sometimes i see kids wearing them which takes me back to my childhood a little bit alright the next fad that i want to talk about is furby furbies are these little electronic toys that look like owls if i remember correctly they talk sing and do other stuff like that they come in a lot of different varieties so you can choose the one that you think is the best or cutest this bad was huge when i was a kid for some reason everyone wanted a furby and i saw them everywhere to be honest i was always kind of freaked out by their eyes they're really big and it just seems like they're always following you but maybe that's just me nowadays i have no idea if these furry little toys are still sold but one thing's for sure furbies were all the rage at one point alright one fad that i actually got caught up in as a kid was beanie babies beanie babies are these small animals that are stuffed with beans instead of the normal soft stuffing you can feel the texture of the beans inside one of their most recognizable features is the red heart-shaped tag attached that says tie for thai incorporated beanie babies became a huge fad in the late 90s i can remember collecting them as a kid and always wanting more i can't say for sure how many i ended up with but it was a lot alright one last fad that i completely forgot about is livestrong bracelets and other wristbands livestrong bracelets were these yellow silicone gel bracelets that people started buying and wearing in 2004 to raise funds to support people affected by cancer what started out as a noble cause very quickly became a fashion trend across america i remember when i was in fifth grade i started seeing these bands everywhere in all honesty i wanted one of these bands just because everyone else had one i never ended up getting one but i did get some other wristbands what's funny is that people started wearing all kinds of different wristbands not just these live strong bands i had a handful of different colored ones that i wore every day for a period of time i remember matching the color of my wristband with the color of my clothes needless to say i bought into this fad 100 okay that's all for today leave a comment and tell me about a fad that you remember from the past before you go make sure to download the listening time podcast and become a member at patreon.comlisteningtime to receive my listening practice seminars bonus podcast episodes and sound training videos also subscribe to the channel click on the bell and follow us on instagram i'll see you next time