UH Mānoa Selects Analogue as Hawaiʻi's 2025 Word of the Year

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of English announced on December 27, 2025 that it had named "analogue" as Hawaiʻi's 2025 Word of the Year. Department leaders framed the selection as an emphasis on human-centered practices, including handwritten annotation, physical books, and craft-based work, presented as a counterpoint to growing concerns about generative AI and automated content. They said the choice reflects students' interest in preserving skills that depend on human judgment and attention.

The selection has practical resonance for Kauai County, where schools, libraries, cultural organizations, and the island's artisan economy balance digital innovation with hands-on practices. Education leaders and library administrators in the state are increasingly weighing how to integrate digital tools while maintaining instruction in close-reading, manual note-taking, and craft skills. The word-of-the-year designation underscores those tensions and may prompt renewed attention to curricula, teacher training, and public programming that sustain analogue competencies alongside digital literacy.

For local policymakers, the announcement highlights potential policy levers. County and state officials who set budgets and program priorities could consider targeted support for public libraries, school materials for handwriting and print-based instruction, and community maker spaces that reinforce manual skills. Such investments intersect with broader planning decisions about workforce development, tourism promotion of traditional crafts, and preservation of cultural practices that rely on embodied knowledge.

The department's statement also placed its selection in broader linguistic context by noting parallel choices elsewhere: Merriam-Webster's 2025 Word of the Year and the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo's Hawaiian Word of the Year. Those parallel selections reflect a wider public conversation about how language captures social responses to technological change and cultural continuity.

For residents of Kauai, the designation is more than symbolic. It invites civic discussion about how public institutions can balance technology adoption with support for practices that foster attention, critical judgment, and intergenerational knowledge transfer. County boards, school councils, and nonprofit arts organizations can use this moment to assess program priorities and outreach strategies that keep analogue skills visible and accessible.

As communities on Kauai continue to navigate the impacts of automation and generative AI, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's choice of "analogue" provides a focal point for debate about values, budget choices, and the kinds of learning and preservation that serve the island's social and cultural resilience.