Episode Overview

Title: A Decade of "Words of the Year"
Podcast: Breakpoint by the Colson Center
Date: December 8, 2025
Host: John Stonestreet
Guest & Featured Speaker: Abdu Murray

This episode takes an insightful look at the Oxford University Press's Words of the Year from 2016 to 2025, examining how each word reflects major shifts in culture and identity. Through the lens of a Christian worldview, Abdu Murray explores the idea of a "reality collapse"—the growing disconnect from objective truth, fueled by algorithms, outrage, and the culture of online performance. Ultimately, Murray points to Christianity’s vision of identity as an antidote to today’s performative and reactionary culture.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Significance of Oxford's "Word of the Year"

• Each year since 2004, Oxford University Press has chosen a Word of the Year reflecting trends in language and, more deeply, the state of culture ([00:09]).
• According to Abdu Murray, these annual selections serve as a "cultural MRI, a snapshot of what society fears, desires, and obsesses over" ([00:25]).

Mapping a Decade of Words (2016–2025)

1. 2016 – Post-Truth

• Marked a cultural shift: "The moment feelings began to outweigh facts."
  • "Post-Truth was not about sloppy thinking, but a declaration of near divine autonomy. If truth is whatever I feel most intensely, reality becomes something I generate, not something I discover." ([00:41])

2. 2017 – Youthquake

• Symbolized the surge of youthful activism aiming to "shake the social and political order."
• The generation associated with Post-Truth and Youthquake is now older, but they “have bequeathed a landscape where reality collapse has accelerated” ([01:10]).

3. 2022 – Goblin Mode

• Encapsulated "a cultural embrace of laziness, a retreat from discipline and ambition, a far cry from Youthquake" ([01:32]).
• Marked the move from activism to escapism.

4. 2023 – Riz

• Described as "performative charisma, identity as performance crafted for an algorithmic audience" ([01:39]).

5. 2024 – Brainrot

• Refers to the effects of "endless scrolling, dopamine baiting feeds, and digital passivity" on young minds ([01:47]).
• Emphasized “the promise of Youthquake's energy had given way to devices shaping cognition, fragmenting attention and eroding mental resilience” ([01:54]).

6. 2025 – Rage Bait (Winner) & Aura Farming (Runner-Up)

• Rage Bait: "Content that provokes anger to keep people in line with their group's ideologies and online to perpetuate them. Exaggeration or outright falsehoods bait us to believe the world is perpetually at war, conditioning us to view disagreement as insanity and nuance as betrayal" ([02:04]).
• Aura Farming: Highlights the pressure to “cultivate a curated self image online... Farming is the right word. The image must be sown, tended and harvested. It is pressure to constantly self create where authenticity is measured in likes, shares and comments” ([02:31]).

Synthesis: Algorithms, Outrage Engines, and Self-Creation

• Reality collapse: Young people live “in a perpetual state of construction and reaction, as if their worth and reality depend entirely on their ability to perform, provoke and curate” ([02:59]).
• “Rage bait hijacks perception externally, while aura farming enslaves the self internally. One distorts the world; the other distorts identity” ([02:43]).

The Christian Counter-Narrative & Restoration

• Christianity offers a different story: "Our identity is not something we must endlessly manufacture; rather it is bestowed. Humans are created in God's image which carries inherent dignity, creativity, and capacity for authentic relationship” ([03:22]).

• Quote:

  • “The God given image frees us from the tyranny of being defined by our curated presences, our reactions to outrage or the attention economy. We are defined by the One who made us” ([03:31]).

• Truth is not a feeling: "Truth is a person. Jesus is the ultimate anchor for reality, unchanging, compassionate and authoritative. He validates our feelings by bringing them into alignment with what actually is. He calls us to see the world as it is, not as the algorithms present it" ([03:45]).

The Warning: Lessons from a Decade

• "The last decade of Words of the Year teaches us that when we try to feel our way into truth, our reality collapses. When we allow algorithms, outrage or curated self performance to define reality, we fragment into rage, passivity and distortion" ([04:07]).

• The hopeful close: "Anchored in that reality, we are free to see clearly, think independently and act with integrity. We are not mere brains to be conditioned. We are image bearers called to resist the collapse grounded in the one Truth who studies us" ([04:38]).

Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• Abdu Murray on the intent behind "Post-Truth":

  • "Post-Truth was... a declaration of near divine autonomy. If truth is whatever I feel most intensely, reality becomes something I generate, not something I discover." ([00:46])

• On social media’s influence:

  • "Goblin mode... captured a cultural embrace of laziness, a retreat from discipline and ambition, a far cry from Youthquake" ([01:32]).

• On identity performance:

  • "Performative charisma, identity as performance crafted for an algorithmic audience." ([01:39])

• On curated identity:

  • "Aura farming... the image must be sown, tended and harvested. It is pressure to constantly self create where authenticity is measured in likes, shares and comments." ([02:31])

• The promise of Christian understanding:

  • "Our identity is not something we must endlessly manufacture, rather it is bestowed. Humans are created in God's image which carries inherent dignity, creativity and capacity for authentic relationship." ([03:22])

• Closing reassurance:

  • "We are not mere brains to be conditioned. We are image bearers called to resist the collapse" ([04:37]).

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:09–00:25 — Introduction to Oxford's Word of the Year & its cultural role
• 00:25–01:25 — Abdu Murray breaks down the Words of the Year from 2016–2017 ("Post-truth", "Youthquake")
• 01:26–02:00 — Move into recent years: "Goblin Mode", "Riz", "Brainrot"
• 02:00–03:00 — Detailed look at "Rage bait" and "Aura Farming" (2025)
• 03:00–04:30 — Christian worldview as a response to reality collapse
• 04:30–05:16 — Concluding hopes and affirmation of identity in Christ

Summary Flow and Tone

The episode combines cultural analysis with spiritual insight. Abdu Murray's tone is both incisive and hopeful, diagnosing the problems of algorithm-shaped reality, performance-driven identity, and manufactured outrage, while offering the grounding assurance of Christian truth and identity. The structure flows naturally from defining the problem (cultural "reality collapse" and its linguistic markers) to prescribing a solution anchored in God’s unchanging image and truth.

Final Thoughts

If you missed the episode, this summary captures Murray and Stonestreet’s urgent message: The last decade of popular words points to deep identity crises and societal fragmentation—yet the Christian worldview offers restoration, dignity, and truth not dictated by digital trends or fleeting feelings. Dating each word’s era, illustrating social shifts, and offering hope, it’s a thought-provoking listen for Christians wrestling with cultural change.