today in tabs: we're not editing ourselves in 2026

ALSO: why women are pretending to be men on LinkedIn, a fight on socials that ended up funding parks, Beyonce is officially a billionaire, and more

Happy Tuesday, December 30th – you made it to the end of 2025!!! God, let’s not do that again. Here’s to a much better 2026 and to the important work that lies ahead to get there.

FYSA, every Tuesday and Friday, I’ll be in your inbox with the latest in politics, tech & social media, culture, and other relevant topics – and I’ll share some notes and tips on what I’m keeping my eye on.

I’M ALSO LOOKING FOR MORE PEOPLE TO DO MINI INTERVIEWS FOR OPEN TABS :) Tips, thoughts, concerns, good jokes, bad jokes, tea, etc?

And finally, if you enjoy this newsletter and want to share it with your network (and/or your chronically online friends), that would be so appreciated 🙏

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First and foremost, I want to say THANK YOU so much for being part of Open Tabs this year. It is genuinely such a joy for me to write this twice a week, and I am immensely grateful to each and every one of you who has subscribed and supported!

This year surpassed what I had even hoped for back when OT launched in June, and I can’t wait to see what 2026 holds – here’s hoping the vibes are exponentially better by the end of the year 🥂 In the meantime, if you’ve enjoyed Open Tabs this year and want to buy me a coffee (or, if it’s within the next week, a Guinness), you can do so here :)

And now, to close this clusterf*ck of a year, here’s a quick walk down memory lane with the three most-clicked OT sends of 2025:

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And no one asked, but… upon reflection, I also wanted to share my ins and outs for 2026.

That’s all for now – I’ll see you on the other side!

How a Left-Right Social Media Tiff Pushed Texas to Fund Parks

Environmentalists and conservatives have often found common ground on land conservation, and the pitch was simple: Texas had fallen behind. Lawmakers had not made a major investment in new parkland since the 1960s. The money had all but dried up decades ago, leaving Texas in the bottom tier of states in terms of parkland per capita. (NYT gift link, 12/28)

She’s Written Bestsellers About Appalachian Struggles. She’s Running for Office. But Don’t Compare Her to JD Vance.

That, though, is about where the Vance-Macy Venn diagram ends. Vance’s lament for Appalachia ultimately set him on a trajectory to the political right, a rise propelled by titans of the tech industry. Macy’s undergirds a New Deal-style liberalism, a career fueled by patrons of up-market bookstores. (POLITICO Magazine, 12/29)

In 2026, the honeymoon is officially over for creator content and GenAI

The industry’s biggest mistake in 2026 would be trying to measure creator content with traditional ad tracking. Brands aren’t buying spots; they are buying into a living, breathing ecosystem where creators have free rein to capture, edit and upload in a matter of seconds. This spontaneity is the lifeblood of the creator economy, but it creates a massive measurement paradox. (Campaign, 12/29)

‘There’s a whole new bench of progressive creators’: how Democrats can catch up in the online space

Both parties’ electoral coalitions consume their news and information in 1,000 different places and have to be reached in 1,000 different ways. What that means in practice for someone like Gavin Newsom is that maybe he will go on the MeidasTouch podcast to talk to male Democrats who are over the age of 60 and are willing to donate to his campaign. But then maybe he does a tiny-mic interview with a TikTok influencer to reach a gen Z woman who may not donate but is interested in his message. (The Guardian, 12/28)

• Lucy’s note: Go, Kyle!!!

Why women on LinkedIn are masquerading as men

Megan Cornish had spent months puzzling about her waning reach on LinkedIn when she decided to run a test: She recast her profile to seem more like a guy. Within a week, her impressions on the careers website quadrupled. “I wish I was kidding about this,” the mental health professional wrote late last month on LinkedIn, after describing how she used ChatGPT to give her profile a more masculine edge. (WaPo, 12/29)

OpenAI has started mocking up what ads in ChatGPT could look like

Per the report, in addition to trying to build new kinds of ad units, OpenAI is considering a few options:

- Leaning into chats that are clearly about buying a product and giving priority placement to sponsored results — though this works out to only about 2.1% of queries, according to OpenAI.

- Showing ads based on the treasure trove of information it has on users, by mining their chat histories.

- A “sponsored” sidebar showing ads related to the conversation. (Sherwood, 12/24)

Beyoncé is now a billionaire, Forbes declares

Beyoncé’s journey to billionaire status saw her 2023 Renaissance World Tour gross nearly $600 million, record the critically acclaimed, country-inspired album “Cowboy Carter” and subsequent tour of the same name — which featured guest appearances from Jay-Z, their three children and former Destiny’s Child bandmates. The Cowboy Carter tour was the highest-grossing of 2025, making $400 million in ticket sales and a further $50 million in merchandise sold at the shows. (Axios, 12/29)

American women want to opt out

America is a hostile country if you’re having children. Child care is so expensive that it can eat up the salary of at least one parent, which frequently leads to women leaving the workforce to take care of their children. Parental leave is rarely mandated: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt has made much of her decision to go back to work three days after giving birth. (Vox, 12/26 – free version)

Is red wine better for you than white? The answer may surprise you.

Red wine contains more polyphenols — plant compounds with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties — because the grape juice is fermented with the grape skins, where these compounds are concentrated. (White wine grapes are pressed, and the skins removed, before the fermentation process.) (WaPo, 12/30)

• Lucy’s note: absolutely huge news for the white wine community

Dressing a New Generation of Party Girls

The clothes and Mr. Gaia, 35, who has short brown hair and a brown mustache, appear frequently in Mirror Palais TikTok videos, which feature him walking viewers through garments’ construction, flow and fabrication. The beige confection of rhinestone and mesh that he showed off to the crowd was one of the brand’s early hits. (NYT gift link, 12/27)

Extra Credit 🤓

Some newsletters I thought were excellent recently:

• “I gave a talk about the feminist internet” from Kristin Merrilees of PHONE TIME

• “In Focus: Detty December” from Post-Culture by Sibling Studio

That’s all for now – I’ll see you in 2026!