Rebecca Jennings in The Goods newsletter points out something interesting. “There’s a thing going around on TikTok right now about ‘rebranding’ oneself for 2022; in other words, leapfrogging the concept of the New Year’s resolution and transforming into an entirely different person instead. The trend’s participants are almost exclusively young women, as is typical for this sort of aesthetic self-improvement content; they share mood boards of toned stomachs and Chanel logos, Amazon hauls of Olaplex and Crest Whitestrips, tutorials, and list templates that include lines like ‘listen to inspiring podcasts’ and ‘get a fake tan routine’. They ‘soft launch’ their 2022 selves by waking up at the crack of dawn, doing yoga, taking bubble baths, and journaling.

“It’s funny, not only because this stuff is so easy to mock (which I will not be doing!) but because it runs so antithetical to the general tenor of the present moment. Growth? Change? Self-improvement? In this economy? Nearly every New Year’s resolution-related commentary I have seen on the Internet over the past week has come from a place of either jokey performative cynicism (those Instagram memes that are like, ‘Before I agree to 2022, I want to agree to the terms and conditions’, the equivalent of a sassy Etsy mug) or takedowns of the idea that resolutions are worthwhile or even possible at all.”

Do not doomscroll

There is madness all around us. But we can do our bit to cope with some of it. One idea: do not doomscroll. Keep yourself informed. But do not be preoccupied with only news of disease, death and disasters. Try to take some time out. Do the things you enjoy doing. Let us remember the things that hold us up, hold us together and keep us human. Makes you look better too!