The 20 best links of 2025

Brain rot, viral poems and generational cringe

Dec 21, 2025

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What makes a good link, let alone … a best of? Greater intellects than mine have wasted the waning hours of the year pondering this eternal question. For the purposes of our 2025 retrospective, however, I have adopted the following two-part criteria: Each of the following articles (a) previously appeared in Links, where it ranked among your most-clicked of the year and (b) still feels timely and relevant all these weeks or months later.

There’s a longform profile of one of MAHA’s leading lights. A serious literary critique of Instagram poems. That bonkers New York story about the teenage girl who was viciously cyberbullied by [redacted for spoilers].

Are popularity or longevity the BEST possible barometers for high-quality reads? Again, I can’t really say with absolute certainty. But I do know that making your way through this list — preferably with a big cup of coffee or, even better, a Tom & Jerry — is not a terrible way to spend a lazy, late December evening.

Links will, in the spirit of late-December laziness, be taking next week off. I’ll see you all in 2026!! It’s gonna be a great one.

20. “Only Bad Poems Go Viral,” by Stephanie Yue Duhem for Do Not Research.

A sharp dissection of the “poetic traits [that] act as reliable catalysts for virality,” including meter-less verse, self-help vibes and … intergenerational rage-baiting.

19. “The Social Media Trend Machine Is Spitting Out Weirder and Weirder Results,” by Amanda Mull for Businessweek.

One possible explanation for the growing incoherence of consumer trends. TL;DR: It’s the algorithms.

18. “The Sociology of Begging Someone to Marry You,” by Josh Lora for Telling the Bees.

A close reading of r/WaitingtoWed, a subreddit for women who would very much like their partners to propose, and what it says about the state of modern marriage.

17. “Bringing Sexy Back,” by Kate Wagner for Lux Magazine.

In the words of Links’ reader Sarah: “a well-written, astute diagnosis of how the internet of self-surveillance affects our most intimate thoughts”

16. “The Hatred of Podcasting,” by Brace Belden for The Baffler.

A credulity-straining personal essay interspersed with some unflinching analysis on the evolving psychology of online media, particularly podcasts.

15. “You Can’t Post Your Way Out of Fascism,” by Janus Rose for 404 Media.

A forceful critique of the myriad and myopic ways that online outrage has become a substitute for real political action.

14. “What Is Rotting, If Not Rest?” by Haley Nahman for Maybe Baby.

A nuanced meditation on brainrot and the fast-disappearing differences between distraction, leisure and rest.

13. “The Strange Repulsion of Instagram Reels,” by Alex Abad-Santos for Vox.

An attempt to explain the generalized, generational cringiness of online spaces where 30- and 40-somethings congregate.

12. “Buy All This, Look Rich,” by Chantal Fernandez for The Cut.

A profile of Quince, the amorphous online non-brand brand, which deploys all the tricks and trades of modern retail to copy and undercut its competition.

11. “Where Do the Children Play?,” by Eli Stark-Elster for Unpublishable Papers.

An insightful, counter-intuitive reframing of the “phone-based childhood” debate, by a PhD student in cognitive anthropology.

10. “How Random, Really, Is Spotify’s Shuffle Feature?” by Heather McCalden for The Financial Times.

A fascinating investigation not just into Spotify playlists, but into the mind-bendy nature of “randomness” itself.

9. “The Social Media Sea Change,” by Anne Helen Petersen for Culture Study.

Typically excellent AHP analysis on the declining personal utility of social media apps, best read in combination with her 2024 essay on why so many people are posting less.

8. “All of My Employees Are AI Agents, and So Are My Executives,” by Evan Ratliff for Wired.

A farcical, funny and very telling experiment in which Ratliff builds a Potemkin start-up staffed entirely by AI agents.

7. “How Jessica Reed Kraus Went from Mommy Blogger to MAHA Maven,” by Clare Malone for The New Yorker.

A delicious profile of Jessica Reed Kraus, the glossy lifestyle influencer who reinvented herself as a leading voice among the MAHA set and a member of RFK’s inner circle.

6. “Who Was Cyberbullying Kendra Licari’s Teen Daughter?” by Lauren Smiley for The Cut.

A deranged read — truly diabolical. (If not entirely surprising, in the end.) You will not be surprised to learn that this incident has already merited a Lifetime movie and a forthcoming true crime doc for Netflix.

5. “Scapegoating the Algorithm,” by Dan Williams for Asterisk Magazine.

An intriguing argument that educational divides between Democrats and Republicans actually caused the political polarization and institutional distrust that are routinely blamed on social media algorithms.

4. “How 9 Popular YouTubers Helped Trump Win a Second Term,” by Davey Alba, Leon Yin, Julia Love, Ashley Carman, Priyanjana Bengani, Rachael Dottle and Elena Mejía for Bloomberg.

The definitive analysis of the Rogansphere that millions of young men now live in, based on 1,300 hours of podcasts and YouTube videos.

3. “Inside Elon Musk’s ‘Digital Coup,’” by Makena Kelly et al. for Wired.

An investigative tour de force from Wired, based on interviews with more than 150 people, that synthesizes months of the magazine’s DOGE reporting into one comprehensive and compulsively readable feature.

2. “The Goon Squad,” by Daniel Kolitz for Harper’s.

An almost anthropological inquiry into an online subculture so deviant and bizarre that I cannot describe it without marooning this edition in your spam folder.

1. “The AI Kids Take San Francisco,” by Kerry Howley for New York Magazine.

A wild voyage into the San Francisco group houses where unmoored and under-socialized 20-somethings live while they hack together their big AI start-ups. I think about this piece at least once a week. Never with great optimism.