How do you measure, measure a year? Some say we should measure in love, but that would leave out almost all of it. So let’s instead measure in what we know best: the ways we wasted our time and money, even though each of those resources is increasingly limited. Here are the worst ways we did it in 2021.
“We only have so many precious hours in this life, and they could be taken away in a mere moment. If I were to die prematurely (freak pressure cooker incident, I imagine), I think one of my biggest regrets would be spending 12 hours of my life watching the Gossip Girl reboot. Every time I watched an episode I would think to myself, ‘I hate this. These actors are bad. Where is the soapy drama of the original?’ Then I would hit ‘Next Episode’ and the cycle would repeat. I could have spent those 12 hours doing literally anything else, like having sex or learning how to skin a fish. Those hours are gone now, and I will never get them back. XOXO, Gossip Liv.” — Olivia Craighead
“One might say that the worst use of my time has been continuing to play Pokemon Go (five years and counting). But I would argue that it's not THAT bad, okay?” — Jenny G. Zhang
“I can't stop watching the television show Bones. I'm mid-way through season seven, and I commenced my Bones watch in like ... late October. For the uninitiated, Bones was a Fox procedural that followed the adventures of genius forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel, sister of Zooey, who makes a cameo as a cousin who can only express herself with Ben Franklin quotations), and FBI agent Seeley Booth (Angel from Buffy), as they work murder cases in which ‘human remains’ have been rendered unrecognizable. Sometimes they are just skeletons (the titular Bones, also Brennan's affectionate nickname), but often the bodies have become soup by getting dissolved in acid baths or set on fire, and they are also decapitated in interesting ways, such as with the paper cutter at a Kinkos-type shop. I don't want to calculate how many hours I have spent watching Bones, because it's way too many in a too-short period of time. It's network television – there are 20-plus episodes per season! But I can't let it go.” — Jocelyn Silver
“Continued playing Breath of the Wild on a greasy Nintendo DS YEARS after I accomplished the shrine quests, did the four main puzzles, and vanquished Ganon. I spent HOURS a day just walking around making pumpkin soups and collecting opals. Also, I didn't need to spend so much money on chairs for my new apartment. Now I have too many chairs in here.” — Claire Carusillo
“Getting back into Animal Crossing New Horizons (time) and Celsius energy drinks (money).” — Darcie Wilder
“Small porcelain pillow figurine (non returnable).” — Leah Finnegan
“Getting any sort of fancy food delivered was always a waste of money. You think it’s going to be a nice treat, for when you’re homebound due to a pandemic or sadness, but then it’s like … $70 for an experience worse than the experience would have been if you’d just made something disgusting yourself, or starved. Also watching the entirety of Ginny & Georgia in two days … why did I do that.” — Kelly Conaboy
“Wasted time: planning free-cancelation hotel stays on booking.com in countries that have COVID travel bans. Wasted money: an unfortunate number of ‘out of the house’ outfits which I purchased on impulse imagining who I would be when I could finally go out and socialize face to face, only to realize I have no clue why I ever thought my style would change that much, and I hate who I thought I would become.” — Nicole Dalessandro
“In February, I got locked out of my apartment and didn’t have a spare key. It happened when I was walking to my front door to pick up Uber Eats. I was wearing only socks. I had to take a 50 dollar Uber ride wearing no shoes to my landlord’s to pick up the key. By the time I got home I wasn’t even hungry.” — Sarah Hagi
“In 2021 I got really into the iPhone game ‘Threes.’ I'm not good at it, and despite how much I play it, I'm not getting better. Still, I click the little icon pretty much every time I open my phone. Praying for deliverance in 2022.” — Allie Jones
“Moving. I did it four times, not on purpose.” — Tarpley Hitt
