Trend Taster: dream chat edition
In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Portable hydrogen cartridges
Social media has a bigger Gen Z audience than linear TV
Calm’s Story-like mindfulness exercises
Capsule hotel's in-depth sleep analysis
Dream chats
Portable hydrogen cartridges
As the mobility landscape evolves, Toyota is pioneering a game-changing solution with portable hydrogen cartridges that transcend traditional vehicle fuelling. Unveiled at Japan Mobility Show Bizweek, these compact, backpack-sized power units promise a flexible energy ecosystem, enabling instant fuel swaps for electric vehicles and potentially powering household appliances during emergencies. By reimagining renewable energy distribution, Toyota is signalling a shift towards more adaptive, resilient power solutions that prioritize consumer convenience and grid independence.
Social media has a bigger Gen Z audience than linear TV
The digital media landscape is evolving rapidly, with social media platforms increasingly dominating Gen Z's attention. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat now boast larger Gen Z audiences than linear TV, with TikTok and Snapchat each having about 10 million more Gen Z users than traditional television. Instagram surpassed linear TV in Gen Z users for the first time in 2023, driven largely by the popularity of Reels. This shift extends to Gen X as well, where overall social network usage now exceeds linear TV viewership. As younger generations continue to favour digital platforms for entertainment and content consumption, traditional media channels face growing challenges in maintaining relevance and audience share.
Calm’s Story-like mindfulness exercises
Calm is introducing new features to make mindfulness more accessible, including “Taptivities”—quick, interactive stories designed for bite-sized meditation sessions. These tap-through activities focus on gratitude, self-reflection, and grounding, offering a mindful alternative to endless social media scrolling.
Capsule hotel's in-depth sleep analysis
Nine Hours, a design-forward capsule hotel chain with over 20 locations in Japan, is transforming the hospitality experience with its innovative 9h sleep fitscan. As guests sleep, their physiological data is collected and analysed using AI, providing personalized sleep reports upon checkout. This initiative reflects a growing trend of integrating healthcare and wellness into everyday experiences, catering to consumers eager to optimize their sleep and overall well-being. Nine Hours aims to analyse 1 million guests annually, offering insights that could enhance mental health, performance, and longevity.
Dream chats
REMspace has achieved a groundbreaking milestone in human communication by facilitating the first-ever "chat" between two individuals within their lucid dreams, signalling a potential paradigm shift in how we understand consciousness and interaction. Using specialized equipment to track brain waves and transmit messages during REM sleep, this experiment opens unprecedented possibilities for dream communication, with the company positioning REM technology as the next transformative frontier following artificial intelligence. The breakthrough suggests we may be on the cusp of reimagining human connection beyond physical and temporal limitations.
