Grandparents getting high, the mysteries of money, and cutthroat shopping apps for the holidays. We’re catching you up on a week of trends in the Friday Don’t Miss List!
1. Money Mysteries
Millennials are wary of investments, unsure about savings, and generally anxious about their finances. So new services are appealing to them by allowing them to take baby steps into the financial world, and by teaching them about money matters. Don’t miss the fact that they’re going to need the help. One study has found that compared to their peers around the world, teens in the U.S. are “barely making the grade” when it comes to understanding money. In China, where teens were found to be the most knowledgable about finances, financial education is mandated.
2. Milking Apps For Millennials
Some big names of both the tech and entertainment worlds are working on mobile projects with the goal of becoming the next big mobile hit with Millennials and teens. Don’t miss the new app that Samsung is standing behind: Milk Video is a video discovery platform “for the bored Millennial in you.” The app is all about finding the trending videos of the day, and lets users create feeds where the vids of the users they are subscribed to—including brands like Fandango and BuzzFeed—all appear. Young consumers are definitely the intended audience for the simple, visually impactful Milk. According to PC World, “In a closed presentation with the press, Kevin Swint, vice president of content and services at Samsung, cited “millennials” and their video viewing habits as the inspiration behind the app.”
3. A Very Cutthroat Christmas
Young consumers are used to turning to tech for solutions to their everyday problems-so why would holiday shopping be any different? The year, retailers are giving them those digital solutions via apps and sites that help make shopping easier. But other apps are making it more cutthroat. Don’t miss Cash Dash, a new feature on the couponing app Find&Save that lets retailers pay consumers to leave their competitors’ stores. “In other words, when you’re at Walmart, Target could offer you $25 to visit one of its stores within the next 24 hours.” After only three weeks, over 50 retailers are using Cash Dash to send notifications, and now 80% of the apps users have opted in to geoloaction. We can only guess that both numbers will increase as the shopping season progresses.
4. Taco Emoji Revolution
In this week’s newsfeed, we let you know that Emojis might seem silly, but the reasons that they caught on might be deeper than you’d think. Believe it or not, the same might be said of the reasons behind the fight for a taco emoji. The Unicode Consortium—the folks in charge of all things emoji—are deciding on a new version of the visual language, and 37 new emoji are being considered. Including a taco. Don’t miss the deeper meanings behind the consumer-led fight to have this delicious meal included. For one, “The taco emoji cements the role of the taco in American culture and society.”
5. Links We’re Passing
This week, three smokin high grannies went viral. Don’t miss the video “Grandmas Smoking Weed for the First Time,” which has been viewed almost 13 million times in two days. The grandmas get high, eat snacks, and play Cards Against Humanity to the delight of viewers. It’s not just funny. The video’s popularity also shows how much the Millennial-attitude about pot—that it’s not a big deal—has spread.
