Need to Know
17 : 10 : 18

US – The dating app’s latest campaign hopes to tell its Millennial users that being single can be a positive lifestyle choice.

With such a large community of singles signed up, Tinder claims to have a front-row seat in modern dating culture. As part of the campaign, the brand conducted a survey into the dating behaviour of 18–25-year-olds in the US, and found that they value their independence – 72% have made a conscious decision to be single for a time.

To represent this shift in attitude towards the single life, Tinder launched a digital campaign shot by photographer Ryan McGinley. ‘We had an epiphany when working on this that was right in front of us – why is society always trying to un-single the single people?’ says Laddie Peterson, creative director at Wieden + Kennedy, the agency behind the series of ads.

As Millennials’ priorities shift from the pursuit of long-term relationships to more transient romance, family structures will also evolve. For more on how brands are embracing this post-family mindset, read our microtrend.

Barcelona – Low-tech Magazine has launched a new website that demonstrates how we can radically reduce the amount of energy required when surfing the web.

To make the website energy-efficient, it is built to be static, using default typefaces and compressed images that are given a coloured tint to represent the article type. By doing this, the average page size of the blog is radically decreased, while also providing a simpler aesthetic.

The website is self-hosted and powered by a solar panel at the Barcelona home of its founder, Kris De Decker. Because the solar panel is run off-grid, the website will occasionally go offline when the weather is cloudy for long periods. A battery icon displayed on the site shows the current level of power, alongside a weather report ‘to help visitors plan their visits to Low-tech Magazine’.

At a time when technology companies are battling for user attention, some are beginning to consider whether content and browsing can be designed differently. For more, explore our macrotrend The Focus Filter, and designing for a digital resistance.

Global – Users of the photo-sharing app can not only watch the shows, but step into their narratives using augmented reality (AR).

Snap Originals, which will drop new episodes daily, includes comedies, mystery thrillers and documentaries, all targeted at teen audiences. Viewers can watch the episodes through the existing Snapchat app, and can also be immersed in the shows with a new AR portal.

The new feature enables viewers to step into the scene by swiping up. They can also look around the scene through 360 degrees. ‘Right now [the viewers] are additive, maybe they become more part of the narrative, and eventually, you have whole stories take place in a series of five portals,’ says Sean Mills, head of original content at Snap. ‘You solve a crime or watch two people fall in love, where the whole show is experienced in this virtual world.’

In a bid to entertain shorter attention spans, brands such as Snapchat are inviting teenagers to play a role in their storytelling. For more, read our Chat Fiction microtrend.

A new study by Nielsen tracks the rise of women’s sports and identifies the opportunity for brands in this sector. According to the report, which looks at eight global markets, 84% of general sports fans have an interest in women’s sports. Of these respondents, 51% were male, debunking the perception that these sports are only watched by women.

This month, Fifa pledged its commitment to women’s football by launching its first global strategy for the sport. The initiative aims to make football more accessible to females from a young age, and keep women involved in the sport for longer.

As part of our Female Futures series, we investigated the rise of the Street Sport Rebels – females who are using urban sports as a means of activism.