Audiences exhausted by social media’s shallow dopamine hits and provocation-anchored algorithms are seeking ways to re-engineer their content consumption towards nourishing touchpoints that soothe, stimulate, and satiate the mind. Must-know audience priorities include brain-power-boosting ‘personal curriculum’ reading lists, the detoxification of social media feeds via ‘hopescrolling’; and the flourishing ‘digital gardening’ movement.

Social media’s glut of mis- and disinformation – inflamed by AI-generated ‘slop’ advice – is leaving audiences hungry for cogent, human-backed, anti-fad wellbeing guidance. (Re)enter the valorisation of evidence-based expertise across diet culture, reproductive health, mental wellness, and even financial literacy – including qualified professionals’ myth-busting, clickbait-exposing documentaries, and brand campaigns with fact-checked authority.

Beyond its escapism and relaxation benefits, gaming has serious chops as a personal and social development tool, providing interactive roadmaps also applicable to brand UX – helping players thrive. Key wellbeing frontiers include weaving salutogenic (design actively instigating physical and mental/emotional wellbeing) and pro-social principles into UX; toolkits boosting digital play’s benefits for children; and games fostering joy and combatting loneliness among seniors.  

Beyond its use in spa-level wellness culture, the true breadth of music’s wellbeing-building potential remains under-utilised. We unpack boundary-pushing explorations from venues facilitating deep listening (and upending genre assumptions) to ‘frequency recipes’, documentaries platforming dance music’s neurological merits, epic concert programming unlocking ‘sleep waves’, and restorative reconnections with the natural world.