“A guy walks into a doctor's office, and says 'Doctor, it hurts when I do this...' You know what the doctor says?”
“...Don’t do that.”
- Bojack Horseman
Happy Holidays! Boy, it’s been a while since I made a blog post. This one has been a long time coming. What really broke the camel’s back was this little piece of news I heard on the radio during my morning commute earlier this month:
The Merriam Webster word of the year for 2025 is “Slop,” referring to low-quality digital entertainment content often produced by generative AI. This felt like part of a larger pattern. Remember how last year in 2024, the Oxford word of the year was “brain rot?” And depending on what kind of social media content gets filtered to you, you might have seen posts like this:
From what I have seen, our cultural moods are being dominated by the Internet, AI-generated content, and the hyperfocus on immediately sourced media. 2025 has been the year where generated AI has become so accessible that it has truly (and unfortunately) become an inseparable part about how work, entertain ourselves, and interface with websites. There have been many insights and essays about how the usage of gen AI is harmful in many ways, including but not limited to AI users’ critical thinking deteriorating to data centers destroying small communities.
Some people have readily accepted the adoption of gen AI into our daily lives, either oblivious of the harms or not caring about its various consequences (the most critical of which harm our own fellow citizens). Some people have spoken out against the frivolous use of gen AI and are trying all they can to mitigate the damage while spreading awareness about the dangers.
Well, it’s getting to me, too. In fact, I’ve felt this coming for a long time. I knew there was a cultural problem with the overabundance of “media” itself when a few years ago, I could not get through my own morning routine without some sort of digital accompaniment. I had to constantly have something on in the background while I ate my cereal and brushed my teeth, whether it was a YouTube video or a TV show playing on my phone. For a while, it worked, because I had such a busy schedule that my morning routine was the only part of my day that I could actually enjoy what should be relaxing entertainment.
Yes, I was watching shows and keeping up with stuff I liked. But...I also realized I was creating a problem for myself: I was losing my ability to think clearly in silence. By overstimulating myself with content every spare moment I had, I was robbing myself of my ability to keep my brain quiet and mind at peace.
There’s been much more comprehensive and intelligent think pieces on the importance of silence. Just read articles like this or read books like The Comfort Crisis. The best summary of this phenomenon is the fact that we become easily addicted to the “dopamine loop” of seeing things on our screen, and this makes it more difficult to do literally anything else that requires more effort than just pressing a button and seeing a short video. The threat of this screen-induced rotting of the mind is being spurred by AI generated content, which is easy to make, and are specifically designed to mimic the “viral video format.”
And at this pace, it will only get worse.
In late 2025, I took measures to rectify this constant barrage of media, AI generated or otherwise. I’ve put time limits on Instagram, I’ve deleted the YouTube app off of my phone, and I’ve stopped practicing the “Second Screen” method of entertainment (which is when you have something on in the background while you look at a smaller screen, which also has damaging effects to your ability to pay attention).
As humans, what we do most is what we are good at. And if these are the activities that are filling our daily lives, what does it actually say about us? I don't want to be a dopamine-addicted slave to YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, or whatever the corporations want us to feed on. I want better for myself, because I deserve more than whatever the algorithm decides is the best way to make money off of me.
Looking forward to the rest of 2026, I’ve realized there’s more I could be doing. Not just to counteract the brain rot, but to get back to doing the things that truly give me joy. I don’t want my life to just be a receptacle for easy and mindless entertainment. I want to actually experience art, especially art that takes effort to create and consume. I don’t care if it sounds pretentious. I’m going back to reading.
Sidebar: I understand the irony of people using social media to complain about social media, and the hypocrisy of myself using an online platform to complain about the long-term impacts of unmitigated Internet exposure. But the Internet is a tool, and much like a hammer, it can be incredibly harmful how you use it. The point I’m trying to make is, I think I’ve been using my metaphorical hammer to break more than to build, and I’m setting goals for myself to change. If I can’t stand brain rot, then I need to fight brain rot. If I hate what smart phones and social media is doing to my brain, then I am going to take responsibility and rewire it. This silly blog post is just another way of keeping myself accountable. Some people might call it an affirmation, or a promise, I guess.
Bottom line: this isn’t pretense, this is self-respect and self-care.
When I was in middle school, I could read an entire Warrior Cats book in two days. Nowadays, it might take me a month. While there is a discussion about how we have less free time as adults (and our capitalist society are setting up the system to grind us up into good little working drones who shut up and make a meager salary while the rich get richer), I still believe in carving out times of each week to be quiet and read.
Considering the other forms of popular entertainment, reading is the most anti-capitalistic. Especially if you are borrowing a book from a library or a friend, buying directly from an author, or reading free amateur web novels.
In late December of 2025, I did something I haven't done in a long time: I absolutely consumed two books in less than a month, and I enjoyed every second of it.
I read those two books on a 2011 Kindle I bought last year on eBay. As a kid, I hated the idea of e-readers, but now that I have one, I at last see the light (or, ya know, the LCD). E-readers are easier to prop up somewhere, they’re portable, and they make it easier to read free-to-download classic novels and web novels. I’ve also figured out how to upload MP3s on my old kindle, so I can focus on reading with some quiet white noise in the background, instead of toggling between multiple devices to strike the perfect balance between reading and music selection. While I still love the feeling of a solid book in my hand, there is a new home in my heart for e-readers.
To put my money where my mouth is, I am going to challenge myself in 2026 to try harder and get back to being the voracious reader I was. For the past three years, I’ve set up Goodreads challenges for myself to read at least 10 books a year. Usually I end up surpassing that by a few, mostly because I am also an enjoyer of graphic novels and manga, which can be read at a quicker volume than traditional words-on-paper books. So in 2026, I’m going to try and double my goal. My goal for 2026 is to read at least 26 books (if I end up getting hooked on another comic or manga series, I’ll bump it up). Yes, audio books count.
I know there’s people out there who can read a whole 100,000-word novel in one or two sessions, and unfortunately, I’m not one of them. To the people out there who can read 100 books in a year, I salute you, and I wish I either shared your brain power and/or free time.
For those of you out there who aren’t readers, I encourage you to try! I know it's a cliche, but for everyone who thinks that books aren’t for them, that they just haven’t found the right book yet.
Here are three truths I want every self-labeled “non-reader” to embrace:
1. Nonfiction is easier to read than you think
2. Nobody should be judged for what they like to read. Indulge in YA, or romantasy, or Disney IP books, or amateur fanfiction, or just smut it up.
3. Audiobooks are wonderful things. A little birdy told me that you can find good deals on Chirp. Don’t forget to download the Libby app, which anyone in the US and a library card should have access to.
With this resolution, I’m excited for what's more to come in 2026. This year, I've already read Volume 1 of the manga Dinosaur Sanctuary and the book What Hunger by Catherine Dang. I'm 85% of the way done with the audio book of Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton. I even have marked out more books I want to read. Here, I’ll show you some of what's on my list:
1. All About Love by bell hooks
2. Babbit by Sinclair Lewis
3. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
4. Blob by Maggie Su
5. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (guess who's having another Twilight moment...)
Closing thoughts? If you got this far into this blog entry, thank you for reading, and you should be proud of your mental discipline for actually reading something on the Internet to completion.
Remember that it is up to us as humans to take responsibility for our own wellbeing. Our capitalist overlords want us to be stressed out, overworked, tired, and uneducated, so that we can be reduced to just pure mindless consumers. The most easy-to-start resistance we can put up is by turning off the TV, turning off our smartphones, unsubscribe from streaming, collecting physical copies of our favorite pieces of media, and cracking open a book. This is the kind of future I envision for myself, and unless I take action, all it will remain will be just that – only an idea of something I'd like to happen. Time to make it real.
Thank you for reading. And remember, if it’s hurting you to do something that you don’t absolutely need to do, you can stop it.
TLDR; Delete TikTok, unsubscribe from Disney+, read a fucking book.
Wishing you all a very happy start to 2026!
