As we enter the fall of 2026, Wrapped season is around the corner. That time of year where everyone starts to get their various “year in review” for different platforms. Some post their data proudly, “Look everyone I ran 2600km this year,” some do it timidly and somewhat in jest, “I'm a top 1% BTS listener haha.”
Spotify wrapped, Apple music replay, Strava year in sport, Discord checkpoint, your reddit recap, and that is not even mentioning all the other 3rd party tools people make to look at your x/twitter, TikTok or insert platform here stats.
This isn’t new, we’ve had this for years in various forms. Traditional media has award season, there were tv specials for yearly highlights in music, news, all different types of culture. Look back give us insight into trends for the year, trends that reflect sentiments of the mainstream discourse. Insight about how we feel as a collective. Are things looking up, are we looking for escape (remember recession pop? Pitbull does.), are we reeling from a world altering news event?
There is one specific ___ of the year that I am curiously looking forward to to get a snapshot of our vibes for 2026. The word(s) of the year. To see why lets look at 2025 quick.
Source | 2025 WotY | Shortlist |
|---|---|---|
Cambridge Dictionary | pseudonymization, memeify | |
Oxford University Press | aura farming, biohack | |
Merriam-Webster Dictionary | gerrymander, touch grass, performative, tariff, six seven, conclave, Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg (Some how this has to do with Roblox) |
There is words around a variety of topics in some of the shortlists, but I have bolded the collection that I am intrigued by, and most notably that includes all the words selected as the word of the year by these various dictionaries.
If you have been online enough to know what a lot of these are referring to it is probably clear that all 4 of those 2025 words of the year are not exactly referring to positive things.
For the uninitiated:
parasocial: adjective; involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence
rage bait: noun; online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.
slop: adjective; digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence
I don’t know about you, but I can definitely think of content I have consumed where all these words could apply to the content or how I relate to it. That doesn’t make me feel great. I don’t like not feeling great about how I spend my time. Will 2026 reveal words that continue on the path of highlighting a slowly shifting and increasingly critical outlook on the social media landscape? We shall see.
Homework:
Think about your screen time. Before you look, guess your daily avg. Keep it simple, just do your phone. Have your guess? Now check your actual numbers. iOS guide. Android guide.
Chew on these words. If you find yourself scrolling tiktoks, arguing on X, commenting on someone you don't know’s instagram posts; think about these words and see how often they are applicable.
Next week:
How did we go from the early days to where we are now? We can walk the timeline and see the evolution of what we came to call social media. Warning, may invoke memories that make you miss some days gone by. Or you may be young enough to know know what some of these things are.