The Oxford Word of the Year should be: TOUCH SOME GRASS
+ some updates from me & A SYSCA CHRISTMAS SALE!!!
Hi my angels! I’ve got A LOT of housekeeping/ admin to do today, starting with a HUGE thank you and virtual hug to everyone who came to our first SYSCA live(ish) hang!! It was honestly so cute and fun, and kinda felt like a live podcast??? Bel and I are SO looking forward to the next one and feel like we might have to do more of these in the future to remind me that I’m not just always shouting! into! the! void!
Newsy Schedule 𓆩♡𓆪
The deadline to hand in the manuscript for… OH, JUST OUR BOOK… is coming up SCARILY QUICKLY, so I’m needing to free up a lil of this Luce brain to go and focus on that! In light of that, I’m only going to be writing ONE newsy a week for a while, but PLZ DON’T STRESS - you’ll still be getting your Sunday edish from Bel, you’ll still be getting the podcasts, you’ll still be getting Close Friends content, we’ll still be running the Book Club, I just need to free up some of my actual WRITING brain. We’ll resume things as normal sometime in the new year!!!
SYSCA XMAS SALE!!! 𓆩♡𓆪
And my angels - we’ve been SEEING all your notes about how times are tough at the mo - espesh for this time of year! We get it and we feel it, so we wanted to have a sale for the whole month of December for anyone wanting all the goodies that come with being a SYSCA supporter at 25% off!
Remember, a SYSCA subscription gets you:
Entry into our Book Club where you get exclusive monthly podcasts, interviews with authors, and access to our cute group chat
Access to our unhinged Close Friends content on Instagram
Bel’s Sunday newsletter where she helps us all make sense of the world
Invitations to our SYSCA live(ish) hangs
The knowledge that you’re keeping the SYSCA universe afloat and helping us to keep doing this as a job 🥺
Also, a SYSCA subscription is a cute gift for someone in your life who wants to be part of a cute community like this 𓆩♡𓆪
The Oxford word of the Year should be: touch some grass
This week in podcasts
People on TikTok are quitting vaping in solidarity with Congo
Some other news you can use
A phoenixing playlist to help you rise from the ashes!
The Oxford word of the Year should be: touch some grass
I’m always saying that we have the coolest people in the SYSCAhood, and damn I’m always being proven RIGHT. The other day a bestie from the team at Oxford Word of the Year responded to a newsy wanting to make sure I’d seen this year’s contenders and they DID NOT DISAPPOINT ME BUT THEY DID FREAK ME OUT.
Basically what we’ve got this year is a group of perhaps the most EXTREMELY online words (makes sense because, HI, we are extremely online) but I wanted to bring them to you and get your thoughts on them (maybe even run my own poll???)
The contenders this year are:
Swiftie
de-influencing
beige flag
rizz
parasocial
situationship
heat dome
prompt
and they’re just all SO ONLINE (perhaps with the exception of heat dome??) I wondered if it’s always been like this, so I went onto the ‘Word of the Year’ Wikipedia page and after perusing through a few of the other dictionary’s choices in previous years, I realised that a lot of the words that get selected are internetty because THIS IS THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.
You’ve got Merriam-Webster picking w00t in 2007, the Australian National Dictionary Centre picking Twitter in 2009, Collins picking photobomb in 2014, and Macquarie picking Milkshake Duck in 2017 and then doomscrolling in 2020. I get it - there is no divorce between online and real life anymore, and it’s MUCH easier to collect data on how often we’re using words online (you can’t hit ‘ctrl F’ IRL), but I gotta say, Oxford Dictionary, in particular, seems to lean into this a bit more than other dictionaries (maybe so they go more viral at this time of year, idk).
These are Oxford’s winners from the last few years:
Maybe the reason this year’s choices feel so cringe to me (kinda like goblin mode did last year) is because a lot of these terms don’t really represent a whole YEAR. They more speak to just a trend, or a ‘viral moment,’ which come and go SO often online and don’t often stick around for more than a few days (I wouldn’t be surprised if ‘couch guy’ or ‘tube girl’ almost made it onto these lists.)
Anyway, if I had to make a prediction for 2023’s winner, I would say that ‘Swiftie’ is going to come out on top because in the year of our lord 2023 there is nothing Taylor Swift won’t win, and I reckon Oxford Dictionary know they’ll get a lot of clout for capitalising on this moment. Cynicism aside I neeeeeed to know what you think (PLZ JUST PICK ONE WORD - don’t vote on both polls xoxo)
FIRST OF ALL I WAS OBSESSED WITH HOW MANY OF YOU HAD CULTURE VULTURE AND THE SHIT SHOW ON YOUR SPOTIFY WRAPPED’S THIS YEAR! A true blessing to have you listening along from our blanket forts to our man caves 𓆩♡𓆪
Culture Vulture: Matt Rife, Jason Nash, & Autotuned TikTokers
I think this has been mine and Bel’s BEST podcast to date. It was very ‘Gen Z teaches Millenial about TikTok’ but in the best kind of way. It almost acted as a follow-up to our ‘why can’t women have interests???’ convo, because we dove deep on Matt Rife wanting to join the comedy ‘boys club’ and shitting on all the women that got him his platform in the first place, along with a bunch of Ruby’s EXCELLENT ‘'should we care???’ moments. I think you’re going to LOVE it 𓆩♡𓆪
The Shit Show: The NZ Government is a Shit Show
An ep that hit quite close to home this week as Squish unpacks NZ’s new government (which does NOT feel like it is doing anything for the future generations of the country, ugh.) Of course that’s not all we discuss, we’re also chatting about:
The strange Oxford Word of the Year contenders
Gen Z on TikTok quitting vaping in solidarity with Congo
South Korean farmers threatening to release 2 million dogs to protest a dog meat ban
The 41 workers who were rescued from a collapsed tunnel in India after 17-days
And even MORE if you’d believe it!
People on TikTok are quitting vaping in solidarity with Congo
They’re not quitting over health reasons, or because they can’t afford it - young people on TikTok are giving up their vapes to protest the human-rights abuses, modern-day slavery, child labour, forced evictions, and rampant violence happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC.)
The humanitarian crisis in Congo - for those who are unaware - is a result of the Western world’s demand for Cobalt. Cobalt is an essential component of the lithium-ion batteries used in electronic devices, including phones, electric vehicles, and vapes. According to the Cobalt Institute, about 74% of the world’s cobalt was mined in the DRC in 2021.
This demand for their natural resources (which is only increasing) has led to “one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world,” the UN Refugee Agency said.
“Decades of instability and violence have escalated in recent months as roughly 120 armed groups fight for control over resources and land. According to the UN, roughly six million people have been displaced by the conflict and face hunger and gender-based violence.”
For more info on what’s happening in the DRC I would highly recommend this podcast episode and article with Siddharth Kara on NPR!
Some other news you can use:
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger dies aged 100 (BBC)
Top Russian court bans LGBT movement as 'extremist' (Reuters)
Announced at COP28 Climate Talks: This Year Is Hottest in Recorded History (NY Times)
A phoenixing playlist to help you rise from the ashes!
It’s cute! It’s collaborative! It was made with love from everyone that came to our meetup this morning!!! Add yours!
Insurrectionussy is my word of the year
This morning was so precious!! 🫶🏻