Photograph by PeopleImages / Getty
Caroline Mimbs Nyce
Newsletter editor
January is all about self-improvement. And, in the twenty-first century, any discussion of personal betterment inevitably loops back to a desire to spend less time on one’s phone—tapping, swiping, looking at memes—and more time on productive activities.
Three of our columnists made a point of limiting their social-media use over the past year, with mixed results. Jay Caspian Kang logged off in order to focus on a book project. Although he managed to shift the hours spent arguing on X to finishing a draft (a win!), he realized that the other benefits of logging off that he’d been dreaming of basically never materialized. “The chief effect, I found, was that I simply didn’t know what was happening in the world,” Kang wrote in a recent edition of his “Fault Lines” column. “That was nice enough, but all those books I had hoped to read never found their way into my hands.”
Turns out, having a phone is pretty useful for staying in the loop. Kyle Chayka, a technology writer, sought a middle ground by using an app called Opal to block social-media apps during work hours. He likened his use of Opal to gentle parenting, but for your bad smartphone habits. (I also use Opal, though my settings are a little more intense than Chayka’s. I guess that means I’m hard parenting my own addiction.)
Joshua Rothman took a more radical approach. He quit looking at almost all social media, and (mostly) replaced his laptop with an e-ink tablet. He moved his computer to a different room so he’d have to walk there to use it, and bought a cheap MP3 player to listen to music offline. In his final “Open Questions” column of the year, Rothman noted that he is on “what seems a years-long quest to establish a greater degree of mental sovereignty.” But his 2025 personal tech de-cluttering left behind a mental void. “The bad distractions are mostly gone,” he wrote. “The question is, Now what?” To try and answer that one, he explores a concept that T. S. Eliot called “impersonality.”
No matter where you end up in your battle with your smartphone this year, we hope you’ll spend some productive time reading with us in 2026. And, if I can offer a little humble advice? Try not to stress too much about the whole New Year’s resolutions thing this week. A few years ago, I interviewed the author Oliver Burkeman, who suggested bumping such pacts till later in January—and not seeking perfection in your goals, or being too hard on yourself. That seems like good advice. Here are some other good reads to start the year.
If you’re feeling philosophical about the turning of the page:
Rothman’s weekly column is a great place to start. He’s always tackling questions such as, Are we getting stupider? and Why are some tasks just so hard to get done?
If you’re wondering what the second year of the second Trump Administration will bring:
Susan B. Glasser does a damage assessment of the President’s first year back in the White House.
If you’re still recovering from New Year’s Eve festivities:
It’s time to start cramming for awards season. Stream the year’s most talked about films before next Sunday’s Golden Globes. Here’s what our critics listed as the best movies of 2025.
If you aspire to read more in 2026:
Looking for something slim and smart to help you get back in the habit of reading? Our deputy books editor Lauren Harris recommends “Perfection,” by Vincenzo Latronico. The New Yorker selected it as one of our essential reads of 2025.
If you aren’t quite ready to tackle a whole book:
Fair enough. What about a magazine feature? Barbara Demick’s account of Chinese adoptees who were stolen from their birth parents was one of our most-read stories of last year.
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