My Word of the Year

On aspiring to be less informed + my Weekly What

More than a decade ago, a friend of mine made a New Year’s resolution to pay more attention to current events. At the time we were both stay-at-home moms of young children. A time when it was still possible to have a “dumb” phone. If you had an Instagram feed it was filled with your friends randomly snapped, oddly filtered photos, all posted chronologically. Netflix was consumed via a disk from your mailbox.

Keeping up with current events was a real resolution that people made not too long ago because it was possible, if not probable, to be unaware of current events unless you intentionally sought out a newspaper or sat down to watch a news program.

Reading a newspaper or watching a news broadcast felt out of reach at this time in our lives. I recommended a recently launched email news digest for which we were the target audience that I was enjoying.

Each day, after I was awakened (likely far too early) by my toddler, and handled the requisite diaper change/breakfast feeding/whatever else was required before getting him settled long enough to have a moment for myself, I’d settle with my morning coffee and laptop and read a short digest of important current events and news articles that might be of interest to me. I felt aware enough of what was happening in the world and like I could again be a productive citizen even if I was a totally overwhelmed new mom. It was a good little morning routine. And then I’d close my computer, go about my day, and often not be exposed again to the outside world until my husband came home from work.

Now, it seems difficult if not impossible NOT to know what’s happening in every corner of the world at all times. Due to the way we consume media and content one need no longer intentionally seek out news in order for it to seep into our consciousness.

While I deeply believe being informed is fundamental to being a good citizen, the way we now consume information is NOT IT. We are not meant to constantly simmer in news, to view it alongside the opinions and commentary of the general public, through the distorted lens of bad actors, for the horrors of the world to be casually sandwiched between funny memes or #SponCon.

I am informed. I am constantly informed. I am informed whether I want to be or not. And that consumption of information is happening whether I want it or not, via channels I choose or not. At this point I feel overinformed and overwhelmed and I am ready to be uninformed and somewhere nearer to whelmed.

My 2025 word of the year is uninformed.

My resolution for 2025 is to become less informed.

This does not mean I won’t be following news and current events. It means I desire to do so in a way and at a time that’s right for me, not because it’s passively fed to me any time I pick up my phone at the discretion of an opaque algorithm serving a tech overlord and their shareholders. I refuse to remain in a constant cycle of outrage, steeped in everything horrible happening in the world; this is not actionable or useful in any meaningful way.

I need to be informed, but I do not need to be constantly assaulted by information. I need to be in control of the content I’m consuming.

Amidst the bustle of the holidays and the disorientation of “Twixtmas” it was easy to almost fully disassociate from intentional news consumption, but now I need to turn my attention to making a plan for responsible news consumption. If anyone has any suggestions for unbiased publications or newsletters that responsibly and reliably inform I’m all eyes!

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Tell me:

• Can anyone relate and/or have you made similar changes?

• Any suggestions for news resources that will meet my needs?

• Did you make any 2025 resolutions?

• Anything, let’s chat!

What I’m…

Reading

• The Shutouts by Gabrielle Korn. A queer, speculative fiction CliFi sequel/companion novel set in the same universe as Yours For The Taking. These novels are both plot forward, which left me wanting, but I appreciated the themes and ideas enough to read them both. Bookshop | LibroFM

• The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall. This book has been on my TBR since it published in 2019 and made the rounds as a Read with Jenna pick. I honestly can’t tell you why I put off reading it as long as I did, but I *think* Ann Patchett put it on my radar again towards the end of last year. I planned to read it in November, but here we are. Regardless of when I read it, I’m just glad I did! I loved this story of two very different couples whose lives become intertwined across decades. Set predominately in the mid 20th century exploring love, faith, marriage, friendship, and community, this was such a wonderful reading experience for me! Bookshop | LibroFM

• Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. This book hit my stack by way of seeing raves from several trusted readers. About a lonely, elderly woman whose life is changed by a mouse. A supremely cozy and heartwarming reading experience. Bookshop | LibroFM

• Kingdom of No Tomorrow by Fabienne Josaphat. This is an Aspen Words Award Longlister about a young woman in the 1960s who fled Haitian political unrest/violence only to be reluctantly drawn into the Black Panthers after immigrating to the U.S. While this won’t be my favorite from the Longlist I did appreciate the story. Bookshop | LibroFM

• Rental House by Weike Wang. I’m seeing a good bit of buzz for this book. I really enjoyed this deeply layered character study of an interracial couple and their families primarily set in vacation rentals. Bookshop | LibroFM

Listening

• Marmee by Sara Miller. In December 2019 I read Little Women for the first time in preparation of seeing the Greta Gerwig film adaptation. Up til then I had only read the Great Illustrated Classics version (am I the only one who read these?!) as a kid, which contains only an abridged version of the first half of the story and I hardly remembered it so it doesn’t really count. I had such a fantastic reading experience and then saw the film with friends. Basically, an ideal experience and I very easily become a Little Women fan. Christmas time feels like Little Women season to me, I know I’m not alone in that! Closing out the year/beginning a new one with Marmee in my ears was a good way to go! This is essentially a retelling of Little Women from Mrs. March’s POV told through journal entries, which worked especially well on audio.

• The Bookshelf: The Case for Critics. An interesting panel discussion about the role and value of literary criticism.

• The Ezra Klein Show: Burned Out? Start Here. Thought provoking conversation about burnout, productivity, finite limits, and shifting outlook in an age of overwhelm.

• The Ezra Klein Show: Sabbath and the Art of Rest. This is a rerun from December 2022 and a perfect pairing with the above episode.

Watching

• Squid Game, Season 2 (Netflix). I don’t think this season was as good as the first and though it was a good watch overall I think the story should have ended after season one. It’s clear season one was meant to be a self contained story. Season two ends abruptly with a big cliffhanger and few questions resolved. The internet is telling me season two was split into two short seasons instead of one long one so there will be a season 3. This tracks. The story suffers for it.

• Golden Globes (Paramount+). This was so chaotic 😵 New this year were Pop Up Video style factoids on the screen throughout the broadcast. I love random facts so at first I was into the idea, but I quickly realized it was just too much going on! Talking/voice over while people are being followed by the camera up to the podium, plus a different text running on the screen?! Whyyy?! Do people really not have the attention to only take in audio + visual without also having to read something else? Did anyone else notice this?

• Shrinking, Season 2 (Apple). We started this back in November then had to take a little hiatus when we realized the final 5 episodes hadn’t released. A good watch!

Eating & Drinking

My triumphant return to the world of cooking and meal planning (and vegetables!)

• I have made it a tradition to kick off the year with this Vegetable Soup. It’s very tasty and helps replenish my post-holiday nutrient starved body. I make it with homemade chicken stock and add a few cups of chopped cabbage. I eat with with a few shakes of Tabasco added to my bowl and often a Ruben alongside. I don’t know why this pairing is so good to me, but it is!

• Another round of Soul Warming French Onion Pot Roast hit the spot on a very frigid snowy day served with some leftover mashed potatoes I had stashed in the freezer and roasted brussels sprouts

• This Lentil Tortilla Soup is a crowd pleaser and one of my favorite quick, easy meals this time of year

• A classic, family-pleasing spaghetti dinner consisting of pasta and sauce from the pantry. I thought I had some Trader Joe’s turkey meatballs that needed used from the freezer, but they were unfortunately already past their prime 😬 Also made some of these tasty breadsticks that are dangerously easy to whip up that my family also go crazy for.

• We ended the week with a chill Pizza Friday with my homemade sourdough pizza crust

• This Snack Mix is on heavy rotation in my house right now. I like to make it with 1.5 packets of ranch and an extra tablespoon of brown sugar, we think it’s just the right balance of salty and sweet!

Links + Loves

• The Most Anticipated Literary Adaptations Coming to TV and Film in 2025 (Electric Lit)

• You Might Just Have to be Bored (Embedded) On fixing your attention span: “the media environment has ramped up so steadily over the past few years that boredom now feels like some kind of human rights violation. But if you’re looking to unlearn the need for constant stimulation, then that requires abstaining from constant stimulation.”

• Did a Best-Selling Romantasy Novelist Steal Another Writer’s Story? (The New Yorker) “A paradox of romantasy novels is that they express the longing to be unique, but they pour that desire into imitative forms.” A fascinating and tangled web of tropes, subgenres, book influencing, algorithms, the publishing industry, and copyright.

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