“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
In my mind, thoughts of New Year are very much entangled with those of Christmas. Whether or not the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is something that we celebrate or consider, there is a shared sense that part of this tradition is about the beginning of a new and remarkable life. The message of kindness, empathy, fragility, humility and a selfless generosity of spirit that came to serve the world is sometimes lost within the intense branded lifestyle messaging of social media. Greeting 2025, we have new trends like Fridgescaping, that speak on the qualities of our exterior lives, and little of our inner ones.
Though many brands are now choosing to focus on community with values such as teamwork, honesty, and integrity the nuance of these values can sometimes be lost in a sea of advertising images that promote a picture of how life should look and not the thoughtfulness of how actually life is in its most simple and natural form. The evolutionary biologist Joseph Henrich coined the term ‘WEIRD’ (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic) to describe our post-industrialised state in the Western World. The Industrial Revolution marked ownership of territory and also saw the beginning of a decline in the onus on community and personal relationships. The celebration of the individual has been taken to an even further level through online community channels, namely social media. There is an irony to this: both the way the tech industry has used the term ‘social’ and that Tim Berners Lee’s invention of the internet was as a shared tool, rather than one to inflate comparison.
TikTok, Instagram and the world of Meta have immeasurably changed the way we relate to the world around us. The heavy persuasive and addictive nature of socials play a strong role in pulling us out of the day to day moment. The nature of the constant, rapid information keeps us addicted. It was encouraging, whilst living within this data cycle, to see the word ‘brain rot’ as the Oxford word of the year. Defined as the supposed mental or intellectual deterioration that can result from consuming too much low-quality online content, this term perfectly captures the pervading social scroll that preoccupies the majority of both our communication and information sources. It is not, however, a new term. It was first used in 1854 in Henry David Thoreau’s book Walden. In Walden, Thoreau, gives us a guide on how to pull ourselves out of our social media addictions. The crux of the message is to remain curious, look to nature and hone a reflectiveness and the development of our own ideas, not simply absorbing those of others. The question, then, is how to start this simple, but in some ways, complex practice, especially when, unlike Thoreau we don’t all have the privilege of a two year escape to living remotely in the wilds of nature.
There is, however, the opportunity for us to discern what we consume and think about it more carefully. This can be applied to the information we listen to, the company we keep and the products we purchase. When it comes to the purchase of a product, perhaps we could ask ourselves more questions on how and where it is made, the purpose it holds in our lives and those with whom we might share. Through our design and manufacturing of Wood burning stoves at Charnwood and outdoor kitchen units at Vlaze on the Isle of Wight, we consider not only the products’ function and form, but the wider impacts on the people that work with us, the community that surrounds us and the customer whose home will gain from the warmth of shared times and memories made. There is a pleasure that we hope is shared in this journey from us to you.
Taking the time to understand these points in the journey of a product from manufacture to our homes causes us to pause and carefully curate our stance in the world. It encourages willingness to question what we are willing to accept as standard both ethically and into our lives. Within certain cultures in Asia, there is the term Animism, the idea that objects, people and animals all contain a certain energy. In many ways the internet has given us the privilege of access to an infinite and exhaustive source of knowledge, but it also gives us the chance to think about how we can reflect, think and consider where that technological path takes us.