Yes, FRAMES, not blue light glasses (lenses), another craze. As people in lockdown spend more time staring at laptops and other digital screens, they’re ordering more blue light glasses, despite a lack of conclusive evidence that the glasses actually reduce eyestrain or protect from the effects of blue light.
But here we are talking about FASHION, and nothing but. Have you noticed lately, and if you are not living under a rock, you must have noticed, or surely will now, that everyone, like – everyone, is sporting blue frames – from TV hosts (like Stephen Colbert and Savannah Guthrie) to White House correspondents (like Jonathan Karl) to medical correspondents/experts (Allison McGreer, Barbara Yaffe ) to politicians (Liz Cheney) to Hollywood (Ben Mankiewicz (TCM). Even I have 2 pairs and will be ordering a third. What about you? Are you in style (not that it matters during a lockdown, unless you are being interviewed on TV, live on Zoom, or are dispensing medical advice)?
How did this happen? Where did our originality go? It seems that the source was one of US’s favourite weathermen (NBC), Al Roker, an aficionado of a wild variety of different styles and colours of frames. Apparently this pair of frames, The Roker, was designed and custom-made for Al in 2019 byAshley Bezamat , founder of Dom Vetro Eyewear, Los Angeles, and images of Roker wearing these frames, went viral. Suddenly these blue frames caught fire and were everywhere – on Instagram, thehuffpost.com, Pinterest, USA Today, Esquire, Oprahmag.com, you name it.
And since then, sporting blue frames has spread across all walks of life, in most countries – just turn on your TV and take a look.
One could say then that @AlRoker is an Influencer, a word that seemed to grow out of nowhere in the social media / marketing realm over the last 10 years – someone with the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others. An Influencer is highly visible and if it looks great on her/him, it will look great on you, and you will follow said influencer and buy the same brand, colour, or style.
In the workplace, being able to influence other people, gain consensus, inspire confidence in others, are all good traits, the mark of a leader, or a leader-to-be. And don’t forget the huge importance in sales – influencing others to buy your products. A whole topic in itself.
How about in a job interview setting? Here it is crucial to be able to influence your interviewer .
You have to recognize your strength(s) and try to aim your answers towards pointing out how these skills will allow you to add value to the company or team. You are influencing others to buy the best product in the world – yourself.
Oh, and make sure you are wearing those blue glasses frames. You must look “with it” in an interview.