Year of Focus
On a 2026 theme.
Why should outside forces be able to direct my consciousness so easily?
Around the time of my birth (the mid-90s) it was not a social expectation that responses (reactions?) be immediate. Snail mail was still common and instant messaging platforms were very new. I still have a vague memory of being able to set my AIM status as “Away”, unreachable at this time, a third state between being “online and available” and “totally offline”.
That third state, “Away”, is no longer an option, either on the apps we use or as a general social expectation. All online chats are now treated like email (I’ll get to it when I get to it) but also sometimes not (those lucky few moments when stars and schedules align where you actually get to have a semi-real time conversation with someone via direct message) and it’s never quite clear when which applies. Even on what is ostensibly a “vacation” (I’m a faculty on a 9-month appointment, so most of January and the summer months are non-working hours), I am coaxed into replying to urgent emails, writing recommendation letters, and just generally being able to process things my brain is trying to separate from.
Work is by far the most common thing that pulls me from my Designated Relaxation Time—it’s impossible to truly detach from the goings on of academia, especially now that every political pundit thinks they know anything about how my job works and that the subject of Generative AI now creeps into nearly every daily conversation with loved ones—but it’s by no means the only thing. Algorithmic media, which can no longer realistically be called “social” media as no platform has worked on a social graph model for at least a decade at this point, is still psychologically associated as an “escape” in my mind every though for every 3 silly memes I’m served at least 1 post about the latest shooting, invasion, or active threat against the lives of my trans community members.
It’s exhausting.
In the tradition of CGP Grey, who suggests picking “themes” for years instead of resolutions, my 2026 theme is going to be “FOCUS”. Here’s what that means to me, written from myself to myself…
- Write Explicit Career Goals: Now that you have some semblance of job security, figure out where you want to go from here. Where do you actually want to be in five years? (This question has been very difficult for me to answer previously due to trauma-related reasons.)
- Improve How You Spend Your Free Time: Lay out everything you do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis and identify which of your life goals it contributes to. A friend recently told me that all hobbies should fulfill at least one of five categories: artistic, intellectual, social, athletic, and civic. How are you meeting each of these on a regular basis?
- Read More Books: Less scrolling, more deep reading. Long form media of all kinds, but especially paper books. Even audiobooks are too easy to doze off during.
- Focus on One Thing: You spend too much time playing a video game while listening to a podcast, or cooking while watching a YouTube video. This divided attention is not helping you experience either piece of art as it was meant to be experienced (a sin worse than murder) and you are not fully absorbing the meaning of either, you’re just distracting yourself.
- Interrogate Your Infomania: Your desire to be constantly consuming things, especially up-to-date news, should probably be investigated. What are you running from? Being alone with your own thoughts? Are you seeking a sense of control over the chaos of modern life when you should be letting go of the illusion of control?
- Get Hyperlocal: Instead of being pressed about the state of things all over the world, learn more about your local community and what its specific problems/needs are. You recently attended a monthly brunch of people who live on your street and nearby streets; it was revelatory. More of this!
- For Real Though, Reduce Your Social Media Use: It doesn’t serve you and in fact makes you feel really bad. Get yourself (and more of your friends) on encrypted, non-algorithmic messaging apps like Signal and mesh networks.
- Prepare For The Worst, but No Doomerism: Leftists love to speak with urgency about how any month now, any day now, the empire will come crumbling down and life as we know it will change forever. All financial institutions will collapse, we’ll all have to forage for berries, etc. This is mentally destabilizing and probably wrong. Keep saving money and contributing to a retirement fund as you’ve been doing. Prepare for a terrible apocalypse (“go bags”, supplies, tools, etc.), but don’t spend every day freaking out about it.
At the start of the year, I made vision boards with my partner. With the news continuing to suck, I thought about how important it will be to maintain my sense of stability in a destabilizing world. The Year of Focus is fundamentally about staying joyous and grounded through material actions that help myself and my community. I think it came through in the final product…
Many are forecasting, as I have, that analog media consumption will hit the mainstream this year: iPods and other MP3 players, DVDs/Blu-Rays, Nintendo 3DS systems, even physical alarm clocks will hit the mainstream as people perform “digital detoxes”. Cringe as this may be to some, god, I hope so. May we all reclaim our attention spans in 2026!!
Currently Reading
- Tara Knight, a Black disabled trans woman, is being targeting by the FBI for her writings on trans liberation.
- A guide on how to find people that will be nice to you (if you’re trans)
- A dedication to Renee Nicole Good, notably a lesbian, and a link to support her family.
- A treatise on why activists are Like That (miserable, insufferable).
- A connection between big oil and American authoritarianism.
- A new study on GenAI use suggests that such tools improve users’ performance at a given task but diminishes their ability to assess the quality of their work. ChatGPT users guessed that their performance was better than it actually was; essentially, it removed the Dunning-Kruger effect, allowing people to think they were better at a task than they actually were.
Watch History
- Some DIY tech recommendations for anarchists and others who don’t trust the government.
- A tear-jerking look at the state of Navajo weaving.
Bops, Vibes, & Jams
- Bruno Mars dropped the first single of his forthcoming album, The Romantic, his first solo project in ten years. I enjoyed it but am eagerly awaiting what else is in store!
Note of the Week
And now, your weekly Koko.
That’s all for now! See you next week with more sweet, sweet content.
In solidarity,
-Anna
