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

• 35% of consumers are simplifying skincare post-procedure

• Students bypass school phone bans by turning to Google Docs

• Gen Z is walking away from brands over AI mistrust

• Explainer: retro music platforms

• Should Apple bring back the iPod?

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

• Skincare drinks are trending

• Who wants retro dial-up connections?

• Hybrid-electric cars hit 35% of EU registrations

• Explainer: retro dinner party revival

• Pinball is resurging

William Bruce Cameron famously said “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

But we live in a world obsessed with quantification fixation. And even sleep has become a performance metric.

Using YouScan social listening, I looked at conversations about sleep scores and what happens to us when we outsource decisions over our own bodies to algorithms.

And happens when we escape the cult of optimisation?

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

• Gen Z's extreme tanning

• What is a “caffeine nap”?

• Consumers feel 42% confident spotting AI images

• Explainer: microshifting

• Is hōjicha the new matcha?

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

• Cinematic Sound Takes Centre Stage

• Second-Hand Luxury's Authentication Challenge

• The viral 6‑6‑6 walking routine

• Explainer: baristaphobia

• Google Maps becomes the world's largest unintentional photo album

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

• Cancelled Trip Marketplaces

• Next-Gen Windows: Wood, Egg Whites, and Rice

• Event tourism is on the rise

• Explainer: colour drenching

• The "Zombie Brand" Resurgence

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

• Millennial moms are obsessed with their grandmothers' game

• Discreet period care kits for hotel rooms

• Overlooked platforms harbour super-engaged audiences

• Explainer: dopamine dressing

• Solar Sidewalks Are Turning Every Footstep Into Electricity

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

• The world's food supply runs on just nine plants

• Your garden lights are erasing the stars

• A £50,000 diamond ring that fights phone addiction

• Explainer: Death Metal Health Food

• Starbucks Bets Big on Protein Cold Foam

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

• Indian Snacks Are Conquering Western Supermarkets

• MIT turns banana peels into coffee cups

• New Hope for Inheritable Disease: "Mitochondrial Donation" IVF

• Explainer: sensory marketing

• Dior turns shopping into fortune telling at Harrods

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

• Men now make up over a third of Pinterest's global audience

• New travel trend sees parents crashing honeymoons

• When BookTok Meets Real-World Adventure

• Explainer: vintage haul culture

• How 'Beige-ification' Is Redefining Luxury Travel

Do you ever check Rotten Tomatoes before watching a film?
I do. But I wonder how much those scores really reflect taste anymore.

When I looked at social listening data via YouScan Social Listening ✨, there was a clear debate: critics vs audiences, “overrated” vs “underrated”, people searching for validation as much as evaluation.

If ratings shape the conversation before we’ve even had the experience, are they still helping us discover culture?

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

• Teenagers are taking control of their smartphones

• Hermès turned shopping into a murder mystery

• Maybelline is the first-ever official cosmetic partner of WWE

• Explainer: google maps girl

• NotebookLM now has featured notebooks

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

• Negative age stereotypes in ads

• Puerto Rico’s glow-in-the-dark medication labels

• Relooted lets players steal back 70 real African artifacts

• Explainer: queenager

• German cities incentivise safer nighttime travel for women

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

• Your drink choice reveals more than you think

• Why Travellers Are Choosing 24-Hour Escapes Over Hotel Stays

• New paint literally sweats to cool structures

• Explainer: messy beauty

• Africa becomes the new playground for $50,000-a-night hotels

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

• What is "The Topanga" hair trend?

• Mothers are actively trying to delay their daughters' first periods

• 32% of pet owners skip vet visits

• Explainer: snackification

• What are home cafés?

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

• Americans are ditching fitness influencers and smartwatches

• Fictional memories are reshaping our identities

• What are the latest snack trends?

• Explainer: bakery tourism

• Solo travel is becoming mainstream

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

• Luxury consumers abandon extremes for the middle ground

• HNWI have a different spending mindset

• What is the "McMigraine meal"?

• Explainer: frolleagues

• Copenhagen tops the 2025 Happy City Index

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

• Are tampons getting an engineering upgrade?

• Gen Z parents are struggling with reading to their kids

• Expedia's AI turns Instagram reels into bookable itineraries

• Explainer: grandymoons

• Delta Airlines has partnered with Missoni to update its cabin