The Powerbeats Pro are having a summer makeover this year, as Apple released the wireless headphones in bright new colours. Initially, the colourways were teased earlier in May but have now be confirmed.

Currently, the earphones only come in four colours- black, navy, ivory and moss for $250. Apple have announced, however, that now you’ll be able to purchase the Powerbeats Pro in “Spring Yellow”, “Cloud Pink”, “Lava Red” and “Glacier Blue”.

It has been noticed that Apple have a tendency to update their products with new colourways, including seasonal options. The Beats Solo and Studio headphones for instance come in Satin Gold, Silver and Rose Gold or Club Yellow, Red, White and Navy.

These new colours will be available next week, June 9 on Apple.com for $249.95. Which colour are you going to go for?

To help further understand Gen Z, BLUP let fifteen years old Roshni Rai explain to us how they talk to each other, what platforms they use, and more importantly, why?

“Here’s a quick guide on how our teenage brains think when it comes to talking to people through our phones.

Let’s start off with Snapchat, which is my favourite app and also every other teenager I know. It’s so quick and easy to talk on to keep in touch with people. You can send snaps to multiple people at once and it requires very little effort. You find yourself always starting new interesting conversations with people when you reply to their stories. One of my favourite features is private stories because if I find a funny video or something has happened, I can put it on there for only my selected friends to see. Another one of my favourite features is that I can half swipe my messages so if I don’t feel like replying to someone just yet (because sometimes I’m just not in the mood for people), I can swipe it to see if it’s important and reply later without them knowing I ever saw it in the first place.

Instagram is on my phone for the sole purpose of sending and receiving memes and funny posts from my friends. Other teenagers also use it to post pictures, but I don’t, but I do comment on posts when they look nice. I have my family on Instagram because I don’t have them on other social media platforms, so they don’t feel like I’m trying to completely hide my life from them. Boys use it to slide into girls DMs but it usually ends up in them just getting their snapchat and continuing from there.

I personally love twitter, but a lot of teenagers don’t use it and its extremely underrated. Its full of the stupidest people I’ve ever met which makes it so funny.

Tiktok is one of those apps, you either love it or hate it. Some people can spend all day on it and some people thinks it’s wet and for people who don’t have a life, there’s no real in-between. I think it’s hilarious to be honest, I could easily spend hours on there doing absolutely nothing but even those who hate it, as soon as they downloaded it, they get addicted too.

Studies show usage across social media and communication vary massively across generations from boomers to gen-Z (see above)

Facebook is for old people, we don’t need it.

WhatsApp is for family and family only. There’s absolutely no need for it at all to be honest and I would rather use text.

I’m not quite sure if this one is only me and my friends or its everyone, but we hate saving numbers. It’s completely unnecessary, unless I talk to you on a regular basis, I won’t save your number because there’s no need. Why would I save a number for someone I will speak to once or twice and never again?

We also hate calling people, but we do like to facetime. Only our friends though. And if we have a long story to tell we will voice note it because typing takes a lot of effort. So, we will listen to each other voices through voice notes, but we won’t listen through the phone.

To conclude, our logic makes absolutely no sense to other people, but it does to us.”
– Roshni Rai, 15 years old, London.

STATS AT A GLANCE:

• 2000% INCREASE IN ZOOM USERS
• 36% MORE TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
• 26% INCREASE IN USE OF NEW APPS
• 5 HOURS 14 MINS AVERAGE TIME SPENT ONLINE PER DAY
• 30% MORE PHONE CALLS BEING MADE

Lockdown was undeniably a difficult time for everyone, however thanks to social media I felt as though I was able to stay connected to friends, family and the world around me. Not only was I able to keep up to date with COVID regulations and government updates using Twitter and the BBC news app, but I was also able to distract myself from the negatives. The Tiger King memes, the whipped coffee recipes and DIY hacks being shared online were just a few things which cheered me up during the lockdown. Plus who can forget the zoom quizzes, which arguably got pretty repetitive but were always a good laugh.

Things happened so fast during lockdown, like the rise and fall of the video call app, HouseParty which was all the rage one week then suddenly was being panic deleted off everyone’s phones due to data hacking rumours. My friends and I made the switch to Zoom making us part of the 2000% increase of new users during lockdown.

A recent report by Ofcom found that during the month of April people were spending 36% more time on social media with 18-24 year olds averaging 5 hours and 4 minutes online everyday. There was also a 26% increase in the usage of news apps, with the average time being spent on these at 15 minutes a day, no doubt people trying to make sense of everything happening. The Ofcom report also reiterates the rise in the apps Zoom and Houseparty. Zoom increased from around 660,000 users to 13million users and Houseparty went from 175,000 users to 4million.

Interestingly there was also a rise of actual phone calls with 30% more phone calls being made. Perhaps people were reaching out to potentially older loved ones who are not online. 

Another social media platform which thrived during the pandemic is TikTok. I remember only about a year ago when it would be considered so embarrassing to be seen with the app on your phone, now it also seems the opposite – if you’re not on TikTok then you’re missing out!

The Chinese originating parent company of TikTok bought the app Musical.ly and merged the two apps allowing TikTok to infiltrate the US target market as many younger people already had musical.ly. The app’s growth is incredible, in only a year and a half the app went from 500million users to over 1 billion (!!!) users with 850million of those being active monthly users.

A lot of us turned to TikTok during lockdown as a way to distract from the dark reality we were in and used it as a way to have 10 minutes (…more like 2 hours) of laughs. Not only does the app provide humorous content but also creative ideas and trends to try out.

TikTok has a reputation for being a dancing app (trust me it’s so much more) so songs can have a big influence on what is trending. One song goes viral on the app and it’ll shoot up in the charts. One example being when user @420doggface208 posted a video which gained over 11.3 million likes on (25th of September) of him skateboarding looking effortlessly cool with the song Dreams by Fleetwood Mac playing. This resulted in the song re-entering the US and UK charts for the first time in 7 years, with Mick Fleetwood even acknowledging and recreating the video himself.

Jason Derulo, pop legend, who has amassed almost 40million followers on TikTok has also found success with his music releases on the app.

Derulo collaborated with user @Jawsh_685 to sample a sound he heard and loved to create the hugely popular song Savage Love which topped the charts for  3 weeks. There was a viral dance trend which went with the song and the sound now has over 9 million videos made with it and over 530 million streams on spotify.

More recently Derulo and @Jawsh_685 have collaborated with K-pop royalty BTS to create a Savage Love remix which will have opened their music to a whole new audience. It is undeniable the power TikTok has over the music industry and the opportunities it can bring to people.

Social media was a powerhouse during lockdown and was a way for many to remain connected to loved ones when feeling extremely lonely. Despite all the positives that come from social media there can be negatives, and one example demonstrated in this article is the volatility and the speed things can suddenly be kicked from the top spot. However, if you take social media at face value and act kindly online it can be enjoyed to its full potential.

Susie Cutler, 23 years old, Guildford