Words of the Year 2025

I’d like to comment on the 2025 words of the year.  Every year, certain words are recognized as particularly significant.  Dictionary sites are known to make this type of post every December. 

So, what are the big winners of this year?  Parasocial (Cambridge ), an imagined relationship with a famous person or AI online.  Rage bait (Oxford), social media posts designed to provoke anger and outrage in order to get clicks. And finally, slop (Miriam-Webster), junk content online often created by AI also to generate clicks, but of no objective value.

These three terms show the importance of the Internet and social media, and they all highlight negative/destructive effects. In our post-Covid isolation, people have been filling that emotional gap with one sided parasocial relationships: a sad commentary on modern society. We need healthy relationships not fake ones. There are injustices that deserve our outrage, but constant rage bating desensitized us and prevets positive action. Slop in general is basically wet garbage. Internet and social media slop are overwhelming the good and useful content that was more common in the early days of the Internet.

What do you think of these three words of 2025?