These brands also push back against the stigma by using models with highly Pop culture masculine features – thick beards and defined facial features. They also typically use masculine branding, black and red colors alongside bold and all caps text.
Gaming becomes Gen Z’s hangout
Gaming has become a top social activity for Gen Z and Gen Y, with nearly half of young adults reporting they made long-term friends while gaming. And 40% of Gen Z and Millennials reported socializing more in video games than in person. The rise of online multiplayer games and social platforms like Discord has taken things even further, making gaming an even more interactive and communal experience and sparking a host of new
Lab-grown diamonds challenge tradition
De Beers has spent the last eighty years selling diamonds at a huge markup, making the high price a part of the sales pitch and now they’re selling a competing product for 80% less. Given their reliance on high prices, why sell lab-grown diamonds—and why sell them at such a discount?
While lab-grown diamonds are currently a smaller share of the overall market at around 15%, they’re much cheaper than natural ones, and can only be distinguished using specialized equipment, leading them to emerge as one of the fastest-growing
Aging population strains health systems
An increased demand for healthcare services is expected due to demographic shifts, like the daily retirement of 10,000 Americans, driving a range of This group tends to reduce spending on almost everything except healthcare. In fact, the average healthcare spend of 75+ demographic is almost 2.5x that of the 45-54 demographic.
Soulsyncing: Gravitating towards connection
Take your pick for a Friday night: screaming the lyrics to your favorite song at Lollapalooza with strangers or curling up at home with your favorite playlist? Soulsyncing captures these two polar opposites—and those who can’t pick just one. Throughout our daily experiences, we all search for meaning. Some find this through self-help podcasts and religious music, while others find it through shared experiences with others. Whether they’re alone or in a crowd, 73% of listeners seek experiences that make them feel part of something meaningful. 1
The spectrum:
Sanctuary: Those seeking a “sanctuary” prioritize being mindful and getting an emotional reset. They’re turning to faith-based music to help them navigate daily challenges, from Christian contemporary to gospel. Communion: Meanwhile, those looking for “communion” find comfort in shared experiences. They might find it in a live podcast taping, a concert.Shelf-stable foods rise with increased online shoppingMass adoption of electric lighting in the 1900s is, surprisingly, the reason consumers first switched from cooking with animal fats to cooking with vegetable oils.At that time, Proctor & Gamble was largely in the business of making candles and candle demand was falling as electric lighting took off. P&G’s massive infrastructure for processing cottonseed oil, the key ingredient in their candles, was in danger of becoming obsolete so they started using the same material to produce shortening, turning into the massively popular cooking product Crisco in 1911.Consumers were initially hesitant to switch from their seemingly healthy and natural lard to what they saw as processed candle wax, but P&G pushed hard to convince the world that Crisco was superior. To do so, they sent samples to food scientists and hospitals, then later advertised the fact that hospitals and schools used it. They also embarked on a massive campaign to put out cookbooks with recipes that called for Crisco.
AI companions for the loneliness epidemic
Replika.ai, a site where people can befriend an AI chatbot, is often used for romance, but there’s a growing opportunity to build a massive business with a fascinating monetization loophole: AI companions for the elderly.
Recently, a number of companies have experimented with giving robotic pets to nursing home residents. Remarkably, one business called Paro got the FDA to classify their companion robots as a medical device.
This significant milestone allows the product to be eligible for insurance coverage and shifting the spend from the consumer to the insurance company means a whole lot more revenue potential and less price sensitivity.
Caretaking robots and AI companions have several significant advantages over humans. Unlike their human counterparts, they’re unlikely to ever become frustrated or impatient or forget doctors’ appointments or reminders to take medication. And they won’t defraud or abuse their patients, a surprisingly common problem in the industry.
social media trends for 2026
Social media trends refer to popular or emerging patterns, behaviors, features, and content types that gain significant traction. Staying informed about social media trends can help you maintain or expand the success of your channels. While some types of social media trends can move quickly, like memes, others are more long-term, and you can use them to inform your overarching social media marketing strategy and content calendar.
Social media trends typically involve shifts in user behaviors, like preferences for video over static images, and platform functionality, like social media companies introducing on-platform shopping features.
To compile our list, we synthesized findings from several industry reports and studies from companies like Hootsuite and Gartner. As you read through it, remember that your social media strategy may not need to include every aspect of this list. It’s important to consider how well these trends align with your and business goals.
Information and entertainment will be bigger priorities.
The type of content brands share on their social media channels is evolving. Many users rely on social media for information gathering. This shift reflects growing consumer fatigue with direct marketing approaches and an increasing preference for authentic, value-driven content.
Consider adopting a more editorial mindset, focusing on creating content that educates, entertains, or solves problems for audiences rather than content that pushes sales messages. Think educational how-to videos and behind-the-scenes clips. This “content-first” approach helps build stronger connections with audiences, establish brand authority, and foster long-term loyalty through meaningful engagement.
Brands will prioritize social platforms by ROI.
Brand leaders are thinking more strategically about the business value of their chosen platforms and prioritizing efforts on those that deliver the strongest ROI. This trend may be driven by two important points:
A decline in user trust stands to reshape the way people use social media, making it more important for brands to use social media wisely. Trust levels vary across platforms, with Gartner reporting that 25 percent of users have complete trust in YouTube but just 8 percent have compete trust in TikTok
According to Sprout Social, network fragmentation and the rise of content types require social media teams to tailor content to each platform
According to Statista, the most popular social media platforms in 2026 are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok
Consumer shopping habits are boosting social commerce.
An increasing number of social media users now make purchases directly in their apps. According to Statista, in 2023, there were 106.8 million social buyers in the US. By 2027, they forecast that this figure will grow by over 10 percent to 118 million
At the same time, social media companies are making it easier to shop on their platforms—take, for example, the introduction of the TikTok shop—which can help to encourage in-app consumer behaviors.
Personalization is increasingly important.
According to Sprout Social, 51 percent of consumers say the most memorable brands on social media respond to customers, 76 percent value how quickly a brand responds to their needs, and 70 percent expect a personalized response to customer service needs [2].
To efficiently accommodate this high-touch service, social media teams are again turning to AI, using chatbots and automation tools that can respond to basic customer needs—and it seems to be working. HubSpot reports that 72 percent of marketers agree that these tools help them personalize the customer experience, and 58 percent of marketers plan to increase their investments in AI and automation in 2024
Mending your clothes will be cool
I can already see Free People jumping on selling “embroidery mending kits” as part of a “green initiative”. Influencers will be pushing “buying quality clothing” that you learn how to mend. Embroidery is cool again, it just needs to hit the mainstream and this is how I see it happening.
Wine as a “health food”
We are one global crisis away from wine being marketed as a health food again. In moderation, from a sustainable, organic, natural source OF COURSE. Health influencers and podcasters will talk about how they really feel like the positives of “a glass of wine with dinner” really outweigh some of the negatives. It’s really about choosing which stressors we allow into our lives, right? If you’ve maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle, it’s fine. It’s ancestral! Humans have been drinking wine since records begin! etc etc
Live selling mimics social feeds
America’s fastest-growing marketplace looks more like a social app than a shopping site. In fact, many of the participants aren’t even there to buy, they’re there to be entertained.
It’s called Whatnot: a live-selling site founded just 3 years ago and recently valued at nearly $4B. The site holds auctions alongside a live group chat, strategically combining two of the most powerful levers in conversion, social proof and urgency, to spark one of the future With similar dynamics to live, in-person auctions, Whatnot buyers are heavily influenced by other buyers’ excitement as the auction escalates. What’s more, the perception that there’s a large crowd, all going after the same product, reinforces trust and appeal. And the numbers are impressive: engagement metrics resemble that of a social app while conversion metrics match that of a high-performing ecommerce marketplace.