Celebrating Pocket’s Best of 2022
The run-up to December is always my favorite time of year at Pocket. It’s when we sift through our data (always anonymous and aggregated—we’re part of Mozilla, after all) to see which must-read profiles, thought-provoking essays, and illuminating explainers Pocket readers loved best over the past 12 months.
Today, we’re delighted to bring you Pocket’s Best of 2022. This year’s honor roll is our biggest ever: a whopping 20 lists celebrating the year’s top articles across culture, technology, science, business, and more. All are informed by the saving and reading habits of Pocket’s millions of curious, discerning users.
The stories people save to Pocket reveal something unique—not only about what’s occupying our collective attention, but about what we aspire to be. And what we see again and again from 40 million saves to Pocket every month is the gravitational pull of stories that help us better understand the world around us—and ourselves.
For the past few years, our most-saved articles have reflected our challenging, unsettling times: how to manage burnout (2019), Covid uncertainty (2020), and the chronic sense of ‘blah’ so many of us felt as the pandemic wore on (2021). This year, we see something different: seeds of renewal. Our data shows people looking to reinvent themselves and redefine what happiness looks like to them. We see readers eager to reset their relationships: with their stuff, with technology, and especially with other people. Articles about how to build deeper connections were some of the most popular stories saved to Pocket this year.
These are, in many ways, age-old challenges. But what you’ll find in our Best of 2022 collections are all the ways Pocket readers are discovering and embracing new solutions after two long, hard years. To borrow a phrase from a story that resonated deeply with the Pocket community this year, it feels like something of a vibe shift.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the author who earned more saves to Pocket than any other this year: Arthur C. Brooks, whose “How to Build a Life” series for The Atlantic was a Pocket favorite month in and month out. Whether it’s shortcuts to contentment or tips for how to want less, you can seek your own vibe shift (and bliss) in a special year-end collection of Arthur’s most popular pieces, with an introduction by the #1 most-saved author himself.
There are so many more gems to enjoy in the Best of 2022 collections, including:
- The most-saved articles, and the stories that defined the year;
- Psychologist and best-selling author Marisa G Franco on the power and necessity of friendships;
- The most rewarding low-lift life hacks and small wins that Pocket readers discovered this year;
- Best-selling writer Johann Hari on reclaiming our minds and time from technology;
- Best-selling journalist Elamin Abdelmahmoud on the stories we’ll still be talking about in 2023;
- Plus, recommendations from top writers on the unforgettable stories they couldn’t stop reading this year.
If the articles featured in Best of 2022 are new to you, save them to your Pocket and dig in over the holidays. (May we suggest making use of our Listen feature while wrapping gifts?) While you’re at it, join the millions of people discovering the thought-provoking articles we curate in our apps, daily newsletter, and in the Firefox browser each and every day.
With Pocket, you can make active decisions about how you spend your time online—if that isn’t a vibe shift, what is?
From all of us at Pocket, have a joyous and safe holiday season.
Carolyn O’Hara is senior director of content discovery at Pocket.
P.S.: For our German-speaking Pocket users: Auch für unsere deutschsprachigen Pocket User:innen haben wir das größtes „Best of” bisher in petto – mit den besten Artikeln und Storys, die unsere Community dieses Jahr am meisten geklickt, gelesen und gespeichert hat. Entdecke hier die spannendsten Geschichten von 2022 zu Psychologie, Wissenschaft, Technologie und vielen anderen Themen. Obendrauf hat Autorin Sarah Diehl eine besondere Collection über die Kraft des Alleinseins kuratiert. In diesem Sinne: Happy reading!
Methodology: The Best of 2022 winners were selected based on an aggregated and anonymized analysis of the links saved to Pocket in 2022, with a focus on English- and German-language articles. Results took into account how often a piece of content was saved, opened, read, and shared, among other factors.