This was inspired by conversations at work about Temu. I’ve never felt compelled to order anything from Temu because I generally like to take garbage OUT of my home, not pay to have more delivered. It boggles my mind how we, as a society, are so addicted to consuming that we will pay for things that will break immediately or are downright fraudulent, just for the hit of shopping endorphins. I can’t fathom it. I think that many of us feel so out of control in our lives that buying things is the only escape.

My other “out” is AI— for OBVIOUS REASONS! I hate that its existence is predicated on stealing the intellectual work of others. I hate that it is eroding our already tenuous grip on what is “real” and what is “fake” on the internet. I hate that people are developing parasocial relationships with chatgpt and acting like it’s some all-knowing oracle! It’s not! It’s feeding you aggregated slop, brought to you by exploited labor all while it burns water to cool massive data centers. There’s no reason to use it and I hate that it’s being normalized as an inevitable future. We have brains for a reason. For now.

As for my “ins” for 2025— the underlying theme is that I like things that connect us to others and to our own humanity. I like to hold cups that someone else molded with their hands! I like wearing things that I stitched, maybe even with a few errant pieces of dog hair woven into the fabric. I like seeing the paths that people carve with their footsteps, outside of the bounds of practical right angles. I love texting my friends, “Did you see the moon tonight? Go look!” and I love my friends who also get excited about the moon.

So there you have it. My hope for 2025 is that we continue to honor our humanity by connecting with others. And that we STOP sharing AI generated content and look at real art instead.