At this point, almost everyone has heard of Snapchat. Pop culture is crawling all over it. It's in the news. Your kids use it. Maybe even you use it (but probably not). Everyone (particularly parents and marketers, but for very different reasons) wants to know: Why is Snapchat making waves, especially amongst the teen community?

For the past five years, my daughter and I have gone to the Harry and the Potters Yule Ball at the Middle East in Cambridge, Mass. When we started going she was not quite a teen and now she's a teen in full force. It's an all-ages show, and a lot of the crowd are people in their teens (and some even younger).

Teens continue to put their stamp on culture and push forward new ideas and attitudes that spread to both their younger and older counterparts. Having monitored their habits in 2015, there are several trends that we predict will spread and take hold in 2016. These include changing interests in entertainment, a fresh approach to education, and a revised image of social media.

Business leaders need to pay attention to the series of student protests shaking up American college campuses. Last month, students at the University of Missouri protested racism on and off campus (and the school's lack of response to it), and it led to the university president and the chancellor stepping down. (The breaking point came when the football team threatened to boycott a game-an action that would have had PR and financial consequences.)

The more time I spend with my nieces and nephews who are in their tweens and teens, the more I learn about how that generation communicates across devices and via the panoply of emojis. As I look at their texts, Instagram feeds and mobile device screens, I feel like I need to take a class in decoding short codes and hieroglyphics.