’Tis the season for marketers to gaze into their crystal balls as they vie to predict the biggest trends that the new year has in store for brands and agencies. It’s also the time of year when social media platforms take stock of the viral fads that swept their respective sites over the past 12 months and offer up forecasts for the coming year, as Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok have all done over the past few days. 

Each platform oriented its 2024 predictions around its chief area of focus in 2023. Instagram has spent the year attempting to overhaul its platform to cater to Gen Z’s social media preferences. Pinterest is leaning into its identity as a destination for discovering (and shopping) fashion, design, culinary and travel trends. And TikTok redoubled efforts to court advertisers with new mediums such as out-of-home displays, its in-app shopping platform TikTok Shop and guidance to creators to produce longer, more ad-placement-friendly videos, as The Information reported. 

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Here are a few of the key takeaways from the three social media platforms’ predictions for the trends that will grip their user bases—and likely influence broader pop culture—in the new year. 

Sustainable fashion and fandom among Gen Z

To predict how Gen Z will leverage Instagram in 2024, the Meta-owned platform turned to a group intimately familiar with the age cohort: Gen Z itself. The platform partnered with trend forecasting company WGSN to conduct a survey of Gen Z Instagrammers around the globe, asking them about topics from fashion and beauty to wellness and personal finance. 

Instagram shared several findings from the survey in its “Trend Talk” report. While the results didn’t reveal anything too groundbreaking about Gen Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—they did highlight a few of the generation’s chief concerns going into 2024. According to the report, Gen Z plans to strengthen its sustainable fashion practices in the new year, perhaps in response to this summer’s viral influencer trip fiasco from fast-fashion giant Shein. Survey respondents specifically cited plans to purchase less new clothing and repeat outfits more frequently in 2024—potentially bad news for fashion brands. 

Additionally, “core” fashion aesthetics, such as the hot pink, hyper-feminine wardrobe involved in this year’s “Barbiecore” trend, will likely stick around in 2024.

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Roughly 30% of Gen Z respondents told Instagram they want to discover their own “core” style in the new year, while one in four are aiming to determine their “signature scent” of perfume. 

Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents identified as single, potentially making Gen Z a ripe market for dating apps in 2024. But they may be too busy for romantic relationships, as Gen Zers cited self-improvement as their top lifestyle goal going into the new year. On top of that, one-third of respondents said self-employment is the best path to wealth, reflecting the ambition to become a content creator held by much of Gen Z (roughly 57%, according to Morning Consult).

Three in four respondents also said they are part of a fandom, per Instagram’s report, with the majority identifying as part of a fandom around a TV show or anime series. 

Also read: Anime and Gen Z—How Duolingo, Ikea and others lean in

Unique fashion trends and unusual food combos

Pinterest’s fourth annual “Pinterest Predicts” report highlights nearly two dozen niche trends the platform anticipates will emerge in 2024, based on recent patterns in search terms across its 482 million users. And according to Pinterest, 80% of its trend predictions across the last four years have become reality.

Like Instagram, a good chunk of the platform’s predictions revolve around fashion. Two style trends Pinterest predicts will take off among Gen Z and millennials in the coming months lie on opposite ends of the fashion spectrum: “bow stacking,” or tying bows onto shoes, purses or hair as a dainty accessory, and “grandpacore,” which features “eccentric” clothing items such as patterned or colorful cardigans and personalized details including iron-on patches.

TikTok users have recently started to turn “bow stacking” into a reality, as users have begun wrapping tiny pink bows around everything from ice cubes to their dogs (though those users refer to the aesthetic as “coquette.”)  And, interestingly, “grandpacore” echoes the “coastal grandma” fashion trend that swept social media earlier this year, so there’s certainly a precedent for elder-inspired outfits.

Pinterest also pointed out an uptick in searches among its Gen X and boomer users tied to strange food mashups such as “carbonara ramen” and “cheeseburger tacos,” which saw search boosts of 165% and 255%, respectively.  

Additionally, according to Pinterest’s report, Gen Z will crave more meaningful and intimate conversations among their friends and romantic partners. Pinterest identified a recent boost in search terms such as “deep questions to ask friends,” “deep conversation starters” and “emotional intimacy” among Gen Z and millennial users—potentially a trend brands could tap into with their messaging, social media campaigns and creator partnerships in 2024. 

“2024 will be all about getting vulnerable and forging deeper connections,” Pinterest wrote in its report. “When it comes to conversation, go big or go home.”

‘Unhinged’ videos and borderless entertainment

Across its 2024 “What’s Next” trend report, TikTok urges advertisers to embrace the chaotic energy and community focus that the platform predicts will continue to take off among TikTokers in the new year. TikTok points to the high performance of “unhinged” content featuring surreal visuals and bizarre, winding plotlines, writing that these “intriguing narrative structures” lead users to watch brands’ videos for 1.4 times longer than more traditional messaging.

Cash App, for example, partnered with TikTokers Frankie Lagana and Jericho Mencke on a series of surreal sponsored videos back in January. Creator and actor Savanah Moss’ eerie, dreamlike TikTok videos also demonstrate the success of this genre of content, especially among Gen Z.

“Remember, this isn’t TV. It’s culture,” wrote Ashley Rudder, chief creator officer at creator agency Whalar in the report. “It means that your brand is now stepping into [a creator’s] space, you have to look and feel like that.” 

TikTok also spotlighted a trend taking place across platforms such as YouTube and Spotify—Gen Z’s growing consumption of content around the world, without regard for language barriers. Just under 75% of TikTok users feel the platform connects them to people and cultures across the globe, the platform’s report states, and viral TikTok trends and popular songs on the platform increasingly “transcend geographic borders.”

Spotify found a similar phenomenon in its latest “Culture Next” report honing in on Gen Z behaviors on its streaming platform, where 58% of the age cohort listens to music that isn’t in their native language.

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