#aurapoints is a playful scoring system on social media that saw mentions spike 378% in just one month. It lets Gen Z show their social prowess, or lack of, through everyday interactions. Score 100 points for a successful date, lose 1000 for social faux pas like lingering too long on Snapchat past age 19. While it might sound like just another internet joke, this trend reflects deeper questions about how we measure personal growth and social status in the digital age.

'Dermorexia' is silently emerging as a concerning trend, affecting mental health and skin integrity alike. From AI filters to influencer-driven routines, I examine how the pursuit of flawless skin has crossed from self-care into harmful territory, while feeding an industry that profits from our insecurities.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Grocery Store Tourism

• Perimenopause Continuous Monitoring

• “Less Healthy” Food & Drink Advertising

• Explainer: Aura Points

• The Black Farmer secures £1m funding

New research reveals an eye-opening "tourist syndrome" sweeping across generations. A study of 1,231 Americans found that 57% admit to acting out of character while traveling, with 43% confessing to breaking laws abroad. Most telling is the generational divide in this behaviour: 66% of Gen Z would claim ignorance of local customs versus just 17% of baby boomers. Despite their own actions, 61% support stricter punishment for tourist misconduct, while 49% blame social media for encouraging worse behaviour abroad. These findings emerge as cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam implement new measures to combat disruptive tourism.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• The One with the App that Tracks Household Chores

• Gen Z's Booze-Free Lifestyle Changes

• You’ve got mail!

• Explainer: Tourist Syndrome

• Aspiring Luxury Travellers

The rise of bibliotherapy - prescribing curated books as mental health medicine - signals a growing recognition of literature's healing power in 2025. New data shows trained "book doctors" are increasingly popular, offering personalised reading prescriptions to tackle everything from anxiety to grief. While the practice traces back to 1916, it's gaining fresh relevance as an accessible alternative to traditional therapy. The trend resonates particularly in communities with limited mental health resources. Practitioners report that fiction, rather than self-help, drives the deepest transformation, suggesting storytelling as a path to emotional wellness.

 The cherry vibe taps into the nostalgia of the 1950s rockabilly and its revivals in the late 1990s/early 2000s, as well as in the mid-2010s. This re-emergence coincides with consumers’ desire of escapism and authenticity. It's not just about wearing cherry prints or applying cherry-flavoured lip balm, it’s about combining the comfort of nostalgia with sensory and emotional experiences. It’s "niche at scale"; an aesthetic that can be both deeply personal and widely appealing without losing its authentic core.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Will you quit if forced to RTO?

• Grads Are Unprepared for the Workforce

• Gen Z's Career Catfishing

• Explainer: Bibliotherapy

• Gig Economy's Wellbeing

Brands are tapping into a growing desire for sensory comfort by creating products that engage multiple senses simultaneously. This shift is particularly evident in the beauty industry, where food-inspired products create emotional connections through familiar flavours and nostalgic scents. The trend reflects consumers' search for comfort in an increasingly digital world. This multisensory approach to comfort represents a broader shift toward products that satisfy both physical and emotional needs.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Starbucks' free refill policy

• What is a "virtual community kitchen"?

• Spotify's Wrapped Haircuts

• Explainer: Tactile Hedonism

• AI is coming for your job

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Flat pack oat milk

• Horror aficionados

• The Princess and the Poo

• Explainer: Taste Profiles

• Artificial gut intelligence

Generation Beta is coming! And marketers are already strategizing how to reach them years before they have any purchasing power.

So I wanted to look into generational labels to see if they are just marketing hype or can provide meaningful insight.

A new breed of digital platforms allows users to refine and share their cultural identities online by combining their streaming and media consumption data across services. Services like MyLikes and Palette create "taste profiles" that showcase what consumers watch, read, and listen to.
This trend mirrors a digital version of how previous generations displayed their vinyl collections or bookshelves. It's part of a broader movement toward more authentic online expression, where algorithms take a backseat to personal curation and users find their cultural tribes through shared consumption patterns rather than likes and follows.

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• AI-Powered Translation Earbuds

• Ikea Pre-owned

• Online hate speech

• Fresh produce plastic ban

• China’s luxury chocolate market

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• The future of maiden names

• Adult Gap Years

• Digital side hustling

• Property climate threats

• What is a “Death Café”?

• Solo Dating

• Influencers' information value

Do numbers bias our decision-making? This is the question explored in the article "Does Counting Change What Counts? Quantification Fixation Biases Decision-Making". Their study examines quantification fixation, a bias where people give undue weight to numerical information over qualitative data in decisions, even when the qualitative aspects are equally or more important.

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

In this week’s edition of the Trend Taster, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:

• Kodak's "Memory Shots"

• Baby boomers want friends with benefits

• What is "conscious unbossing"?

• Bark Bank

• Nissan trials cooling paint