There’s no ignoring it; 2026’s debut has been nothing short of abysmal. Considering the number of tragic and overwhelming events that have headlined the news cycle recently, becoming entrenched in the annual January flood of trend predictions and materialistic resolutions might feel especially inappropriate this year. That’s why 2026’s “ins and outs” — trends to either start or leave behind in the new year — should concern behaviors and values rather than items that can be placed in a shopping cart. The following are a few suggestions. 

Ins

Intentional social media use

With each passing turn of the earth it seems an exponential number of people are seeking asylum from the internet, chiefly complaining — ironically online — of its addictive, depressive and overwhelming effects. 

For some, ditching the old iPhone in favor of the solid, wonderfully button-forward respite of a flip phone, or “dumb-phone,” might be the solution to relieving doomscrolling woes. The same goes for permanently logging off of Instagram or Facebook. For the vast majority, however, escape is not so simple.

Plunging oneself into a social media-free lifestyle is an unrealistic change for most. Despite its soured reputation, social media remains an important tool for professional networking, personal communication, educational development and political informedness. It also serves as a platform for the preservation of memories. It’s incredibly reasonable to shudder at the prospect of parting with any of those benefits. 

There is a false dichotomy in the predominant discourse of internet use. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Social media might feel like an escapist hellscape sometimes, but treating it like one will only inflame a pre-existing toxic relationship with it. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok don’t have to be vices. Take back a sense of agency and treat them like the tools that they are.

Having a more intentional relationship with social media could look like deleting apps off of your phone but not your accounts altogether. Visit their websites on your computer exclusively and have a specific idea of what you want to do and how long you want to spend when you get there. When you feel your awareness begin to ebb away, reorient yourself, or close the computer and take a break. 

If all else fails and you can afford to, opt for the dumb-phone — but print out your favorite photos and store them in thrifted albums so your memories can exist forever.

Media ownership

Speaking of immortal memories, this point is technically materially-focused but supports a larger cause. There was once a time when all your Letterboxd favorites were readily encrypted into the grooves of iridescent discs which could then be bought and held in your hands — available for viewing pleasure day and night. 

Today, the average streaming service customer pays ever-increasing monthly subscription fees for impermanent ad-contaminated selections of intangible movies, music, podcasts and books. The worst aspect of this growing business model is that consumers ultimately do not own the content they routinely purchase, and morally bankrupt CEOs earn all the more for it.

While physical media may have been spat out of the mainstream during the rise of streaming giants like Netflix and Spotify, it’s not gone. CDs, DVDs, printed books and even cassette and VHS tapes are still largely accessible for thrifty media enthusiasts. 

It must be noted that a growing widespread interest in physical media could encourage irresponsible consumeristic behavior and an invigorated trend of fossil fuel use in media industries. That’s why finding your favorite movies, music and novels secondhand is essential to keep plastic out of the environment, money in your wallet and control out of the hands of corporations. 

Outs

Productivity as an obligation

Western culture has always had a strained and falsely obligatory relationship with the concept of productivity. With most of the ingredients but none of the originating allure, hustle culture is the microwaved leftovers of the deceptively iconic American dream. 

The prices of real estate, groceries, healthcare and education are becoming unattainable for much of the United States’ working class. Even for those who are lucky enough to not struggle making ends meet, with unfulfilling jobs, increasing social isolation rates and a bleak political climate, life can be depressing. 

On top of everything else, to be consistently fed tone-deaf notions that everyone must strive for the height of professional accomplishment, fit bodies, financial abundance and social superiority is delusional and frankly, insulting. Regardless, this is the prevailing attitude of the U.S. economy and it infects everything — including and sometimes especially, higher education environments. 

Leave the feeling that you must always be chasing conventional notions of achievement in 2025. You don’t always have to be doing more. 

To spend a day off listening to music, catching up on sleep or grabbing lunch with a friend is not unproductive. To take a step back from a project or goal because it doesn’t resonate with your life anymore or because it’s too overwhelming is not failure. Success is found by living intentionally in a way that aligns with your values — but only if your values are really yours. 

In 2026, give yourself grace and do the work to dismantle your face-value understanding of what productivity is. You’ll be better off for it. 

Aimless dating app accounts

Online dating platforms can mean a world of difference for those who struggle to forge romantic connections in person. So many aspects of everyday life have been intertwined with internet services, so it makes sense for people to try their luck at love in a similar fashion. However, a counterproductive phenomenon is sweeping the chat rooms of apps like Tinder, Hinge and Bumble — one where people make accounts and match with others without any intention of going on actual dates. 

Dating apps can be easily turned from communication platforms into catalogs — portable, self-updating inventories of the local hot, young single population. As a result, dating app discourse on social media platforms commonly involves complaints of breadcrumbing and ghosting — dating tactics wherein one party in a prospective monogamous relationship is either led on or cut off entirely by the other without explanation.  

Dating, especially through a virtual medium, can be terrifying. As uncomfortable as it is though, it’s a thousand times more emotionally taxing to be aimlessly strung along by someone you thought was on the same page as you. It’s easy to view the profiles on dating apps as nothing more than pixels and algorithms, but it must be remembered that the people on these platforms are real and have real feelings. 

Excluding creeps who initially seem nice but reveal themselves to be strange later, anyone you talk to on a dating app deserves as much respect and decency as you’d extend them if you knew them personally. It’s irresponsible to begin conversations with others in a romantic context unless you genuinely want to see how it progresses. Entering into a dating app exchange without knowing whether you even want a relationship in the first place is never a good idea. 

  When you start a conversation with someone on a dating app, do so only with the explicit intention that it might lead to a physical date. Not knowing what direction you want to aim your romantic life in is more than okay. Don’t feel pressured to look for dates until you’re absolutely ready and have room in your life for another person.