Pop 89: “Touch Heart” Words
By Madonna Hamel
The word of the year, as voted on by the Oxford English Dictionary, is rage-bait: “combining the words rage, meaning a violent outburst of anger, and bait, an attractive morsel of food. Although a close parallel to the etymologically related clickbait, rage-bait has a more specific focus on evoking anger, discord, and polarization.”
Merriam-Webster announced that their “human editors” (as opposed to their monkeys, algorithms, or AI editors? We now have to clarify whether or not a human is making decisions on our behalf) chose the word: slop.
They defined “slop” as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” They went on to say: “The flood of slop in 2025 included absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books… and lots of talking cats.” The problem is, while “people found it annoying… people ate it up.”
What is it about us that makes us jump at anything that promises to enrage and annoy us? Does it make us feel better than the ones engaged in the bad behavior? Or does it justify our hatred of them? Does hating make us feel safe, better, stronger, right? Or is it that we’ve been stooping so low for so long we forgot what it feels like to be upright? To be gentlefolk, to comport ourselves with dignity and grace.
Last year’s word was polarization. This is where we take a side and then blame the opposite side for engaging in “polarization.” It’s a prerequisite for the making of rage-bait and slop. You hunker down and build your arsenal behind your wall, fence, or gated community and start collecting ammunition. This is war, and you are fighting the enemy until your very last mud-sling.
Merriam-Webster reported another often-looked-up term from last year: Touch Grass. They wrote: “After the murder of Charlie Kirk, Governor Spencer Cox spoke passionately about the dangers of social media and urged people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in the community.”
I’m old enough to remember not having a computer or a cell phone—which means I’m lucky enough, too. I was 46 years old when my producer made me use a company cellphone because I was reporting from the road. I hated having to carry a phone while on the road—the whole point of the road was to get away from the world!
We don’t just use our phones to keep in touch anymore; we use them to keep us busy, distracted, noisy in our heads. They are sidearms—we arm ourselves with them—keeping fear and depression at bay.
The governor makes sense. Sociologist Jonathan Haidt reminds us that play used to be the purview of childhood. But play-based childhood is being replaced with a screen-based life. And they’re suffering because of it. But it’s not just them—adults suffer from isolation, depression, sleep deprivation, and addiction when we spend huge swaths of time on the phone. Not to mention nature-deprivation.
Author Paul Kingsnorth sees cell phones as “a disruptor of solitude, which is essential to a spiritual life.” And I’d add, if we can’t go to bed without our cells talking us to sleep (anyone remember lullabies?) and being the first connection we make in the morning, when are we alone with our own thoughts? Or does the very idea of that terrify us? When, if ever, do we contemplate, reflect, or pray?
Five years ago, Shoshana Zuboff, in her book Surveillance Capitalism, warned us that “tech companies secretly extract our private behavioral data to predict and modify their future actions for profit. Cell phones are ideal for this because they are everywhere and always with us. They have advanced tracking capabilities.”
Today we say, so what? We like it. I’ve written about this before. But now I want to talk about alternatives. I don’t want to contribute to making “polarization,” “slop,” or “rage-bait” the most popular word of next year. I want to talk solution rather than problem.
There is a heartlessness to rage-baiting—a hard-heartedness which is a form of cowardice and selfishness. There is a mean-spiritedness to rage-baiting too. And it’s not just idiots, but clever people, armed with provocation under the guise of righteous indignation. Either way, it’s about putting time and energy into a hard-headed us-and-them war.
I want to drive to the top of the 2026 list: disarming words, cozy words, words about nature and long walks with friends and family, bundled in a parka, stopping for hot cocoa, or staying indoors, sitting under a blanket by a fire with a book. I want to put words of wonder and constructive words to ascend to the top. Ploughshare words, not sword words. “Touch Grass,” “Touch Heart” words.
Of course, we don’t need to wait for Oxford or Merriam-Webster to give us a word. Every New Year’s Eve, my family chooses a word to live by. I think I’ll choose heart.
This year, may I remember to move from my head to my heart. And learn to stay open even when it hurts—especially when it hurts—so that I can be willing, as Hannah Arendt recommended, “to hear the inherent truth inside the other’s opinion.”
I’ll leave you with the words of Pope Leo, as he seems to be one of the few sane people on the planet these days: “Sometimes, at the end of days full of activities, we feel empty. Why? Because we are not machines; we have a heart. Indeed, we can say that we are a heart. The heart is the symbol of all our humanity, the sum of our thoughts, feelings, and desires, the invisible center of our selves… For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”