A New [New Year's] Resolution

 The expiration of the previous year and its flourishing into the next generates a unique but fleeting opportunity which grants us full control over what might lie ahead. Everyone is equipped with a get-out-of-jail card at no cost to recreate themselves in the new year (if this is something which seems necessary). The new year is a clean slate, a blank notebook- its first page prompting you to list resolutions, hopes, goals, promises which you will strive to achieve. 

The possibilities which this list may hold has begun to vary more and more with each year. It now allows for reflection not just on the standard bullet points (personal bad habits, addictions, guilty pleasures), but also inspires thought on music taste, words of the year, photographed moments, deaths, most-read headlines or books of the year. Afterall, it seems appropriate that in the dawn of the new year, whilst personal, private changes are important, resolutions that might unite us all globally or nationally are the state of unity and growth we need going forward. 

As an undergraduate who is currently studying abroad, it is the words of the year and the language of 2025 which inspires my New Year's reflection. My interactions with students from all over the globe and my acclimatisation to living, learning and speaking in a different language is the experience which has shaped my memory of the year. The dictionary summaries of the words of the year are data sets which assist a reflection on my own 2025 vocabulary. The top dictionaries select 'rage bait', 'parasocial', 'vibe coding' and 'AI slop' as the most significant terms which represent the culture of 2025.

For me, it is the personal analysis of this kind of data which can inspire the most creative and exhilarated resolutions. 'Rage bait' and 'parasocial' demonstrate the complexities of our relationships with each other, both stemming from interactions through a screen. Meanwhile, 'vibe coding' and 'AI slop' recognise the development of our use of artificial intelligence in 2025. But it seems striking that all terms are relevant to the digital world, remembering the technological progression and impersonal nature of 2025. Whilst these terms are completely accurate to the culture of the previous year, reflecting events such as the increased use of AI in professional fields, its damage to industries, its substitution for human creativity, the blurred lines between virtual and in-person community post Covid, it is certainly not enviable that 2025 must be remembered for its parallel, digital world rather than the wholesome community which rises on the other side. 

Then, this 2026, might we make it our aim to cultivate a linguistic memory of ourselves which is less artificial? Perhaps, our ability to escape what the Germans named 'AI era' (in their top words of the year) and to harness our power over AI rather than what seems like us being absorbed by its force. 

In my own language of 2026, I strive to make use of the terms I have picked up from the countries I have lived in or visited, terms which in my own dialect are evidence of intercultural ties overseas, ties achieved up close not virtually. 

[See my recommendation on 5 words and phrases for 2026 for inspiration...]