Gen-Z are not into all-or-nothing health practices — the hallmarks of wellness that have become cornerstones. What’s left is something far more subversive.
“Environments and infrastructure shape music in often subtle, imperceptible ways,” says David Zhou, the founder of London night, Eastern Margins. “With Eastern Margins, we are always fighting a battle against the scarcity of venues and spaces available, and that constricts the ideas that we can implement. Whilst we’re still incredibly privileged in the UK with the access to infrastructure we have, the direction of travel is increasingly dark. The closure of venues will inevitably lead to more conformity, as promoters are forced to fit into existing structures.”
It didn’t always used to be like this. Our ancestors’ realities were hugely different to our own. Before mirrors were invented, the earliest type of “mirror” used was nature – reflections in ponds, lakes and rivers when waters were calm enough to reveal a flat surface. But even then, we had never truly “seen” ourselves and, because of this, we had a very different concept of who we were. In his book Millennium: From Religion to Revolution: How Civilisation Has Changed Over a Thousand Years, author Ian Mortimer argues that before the invention of the mirror, the concept of individual identity that we have today didn’t exist. “The development of glass mirrors marks a crucial shift, for they allowed people to see themselves properly for the first time, with all their unique expressions and characteristics,” he writes.
Since the IKEA monkey began trending, in June, the related Xiaohongshu tag (#宜家猩猩) has garnered over 11 million views, and the top posts have tens of thousands of likes each.
“When you say something as simple as, the world is facing a loneliness crisis . . . and we are in a really toxic state as humans, I just feel like we have such an interesting business to try and heal some of that through better relationships,” she says.
Official will remain as a standalone app for the time being, though Herd says thereare opportunities for Official and Bumble to collaborate. If a person finds a partner through Bumble, they can switch to the company’s relationship-centric app rather than leave the system entirely. Couples who met on another app or in person could also sign up for the app and join the Bumble network.
According to its website, The Pear Ring is the opposite of engagement rings. Wearing one signals to others that an individual is single and looking to strike up a relationship. The website also claims that this is a real-life social experiment live in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Canada, and Australia and will be launched in other countries soon.
Plenty of Americans claim social media is a scourge, but few cut the cord. Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults say social media has a mostly negative impact on life in this country, but 72 percent maintain at least one social media account, according to data from Pew Research Center. Headlines point at social apps to explain upward trends in anxiety, depression and loneliness among Americans, but people of all ages continue turning to social media to build communities. Amid our gripes and widespread distrust, social media serves as a new public square, where news develops, leaders debate and users form potentially lifesaving connections.
A state-sponsored matchmaking app has rolled out in China’s eastern province of Jiangxi. Launched in the city of Guixi, a city with a population of around 640,000 people, the app “Palm Guixi” uses data on single residents to organise blind dates.
Analyzing Trends 