Trends & Artefacts: stack dating edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Gen Z Still Scrolls TikTok But Trusts It Less
Wordle Creator Launches Harder Word Game
Korea Pilots Free Public Sanitary Pads
Explainer: Stack dating
Uber Lets Women Choose Women Drivers
Gen Z Still Scrolls TikTok But Trusts It Less
A Harris Poll finds 60% of Gen Z users trust TikTok less than a year ago, with 31% admitting they now scroll purely out of habit rather than for discovery. Meanwhile 72% feel current content is staged, and 33% cite TikTok Shop as a key reason for their declining enjoyment. When habit and loyalty diverge this sharply, what does that mean for any brand still betting on the platform to build genuine cultural connection?
Wordle Creator Launches Harder Word Game
Josh Wardle, who created Wordle before selling it to the New York Times, has released Parseword, a cryptic crossword puzzle that demands a firm grasp of synonyms, definitions, and wordplay. Unlike Wordle's process-of-elimination simplicity, this one is deliberately harder and, by Wardle's own account, released on his own terms rather than chasing viral scale. As daily word games become a fixture of online life, how much of their appeal is the challenge itself versus the shared ritual?
Korea Pilots Free Public Sanitary Pads
South Korea's Ministry of Gender Equality and Family is launching a pilot programme to install sanitary pad dispensers in public facilities nationwide, funded by a 3 billion won central government budget, with a full rollout planned for 2026. The move follows presidential pressure on industry to lower what were considered comparatively high prices. As menstrual products shift from personal expense to public provision, which countries and institutions will feel the pressure to follow?
Explainer: Stack dating
Stack dating, scheduling several short meets in a single day, is gaining ground among younger singles. Bumble data shows close to a quarter of Gen Z now prefer first dates under 30 minutes, driven partly by cost and partly by a desire to vet connections quickly. Yet 78% of dating app users report burnout, and Gen Z remains the generation most focused on long-term commitment. If efficiency is the strategy, is it actually getting people any closer to what they want?
Uber Lets Women Choose Women Drivers
Uber has rolled out its Women Preferences feature across the US, allowing female riders and drivers to request or preference gender-matched trips. Around one in five US Uber drivers are women, and the feature already operates in over 40 countries for drivers. With two discrimination lawsuits already filed and a recent $8.5m rape case ruling in the background, how platforms balance user safety preferences against equal access obligations is fast becoming a defining legal question.
