Over the past couple of years, most social media users have been verbalizing their excitement about how they “Can’t wait until we go back to normal after the pandemic.” For millions of people who were or are going through significant transitions in their lives, there technically is no “back to normal.” Since the beginning of the 2020 lockdown, there has been a whole other life that we have had to shift from. Before the pandemic, I was a senior in high school. I sometimes find myself looking back on the week before the lockdown. It never occurred to me or any of us that those preceding days would be the last time we’d ever see each other or experience our individual lives in such a setting again.
I set some goals for myself since then and made some pretty great accomplishments. I’ve had a photo that I took on a whim published in a magazine, recently did some freelance work for a media company’s blog, and I write for another magazine for fun. As proud as I am of myself for sticking to these goals, from time to time it still seems like I have no idea what I’m doing. Frankly, I don’t think anyone knows what they’re doing. I’m pretty sure we’re all winging it for the most part. Nevertheless, I try to focus on what’s meaningful in life, but every once in a while, I can’t help nearly driving myself into oblivion with thoughts of feeling like somewhat of a failure (at least by today’s standards). Not comparing your life to the lives of others and being confident in your accomplishments, however small you believe them to be, and adapting to your current surroundings, may seem like straightforward tasks, but in the age of social media, that can be extremely hard for all of us.
A social problem
Avenues of social media such as Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Tumblr can undoubtedly be a suitable way of interacting with friends and family, meeting new people, and displaying creative projects, but there also happens to be other sides of social media to be explored. The worlds of hustle culture and social comparison. During the pandemic, millions of social media users could be seen learning new skills (roller skating, playing guitar, trying their hand at baking for the first time, or even starting a business), taking care of family, or working from home. These are all valid and productive courses of action to take during months of being in quarantine with free time. It also doesn't make you less of a person if you didn't do any of these things during 2020. The social media-bred concept of “hustle culture” would say otherwise.
As stated by internet analyst Tiffany Ferg in her Hustle Culture, Workaholism, and Toxic Productivity video hustle culture content “Is usually aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs...these accounts are all about escaping the ‘rat race’ and these types of people hate nothing more than the thought of working a basic office job.” The basic idea of hustle culture is that if you aren’t spending so many hours working to the point where you don't have time for anything else, you're a failure. The more extreme variety seems to express that if you don’t own a business or you aren’t at least working towards it, you’re a failure (which is most definitely not the case). In the eyes of a person who is embracing the ideals of hustle culture, they tend to have the false notion of “If you didn’t work yourself to the bone during the quarantine, you must not want to be a well-rounded successful person.” This is just one of the many ideas of hustle culture that contributes to physical and mental burnout.
Digital burnout and social comparison
The effects of burnout amongst teens and young adults are heavily prevalent throughout social media. Thousands of teens and young adults share Tik Toks, Instagram reels, and memes about the exhaustion and distress caused by their circumstances and the pressure of feeling as though they have to measure up to impossible standards and social comparison of the times. Whether these standards are your means of education (or lack thereof), career choice, music taste, or physical appearance, through the scope of particular social media communities, you have to have a certain type of each to fit the mold. Most social media critics fail to mention that social comparison did not start with social media. It’s simply an aspect of being a human being. Could social media have made it worse? To a point, yes. It isn’t hard to picture what happens if you put millions of people around the world with different values and opinions in one place and deem that place a free for all with pretty much no consequences and the choice of anonymity.
The rise of self-care and “The Great Resignation”
Luckily, millions of people across multiple generations, backgrounds, and locations are beginning to stray away from harmful types of standards and concepts. Individuals are learning to put their mental and physical health first. These pursuits can be as simple as creating a morning or night self-care routine to bigger standards like creating a union to demand better working conditions. As younger generations are becoming fed up with less than satisfactory conditions and low pay, Gen Zs and Millennials are comically posting their resignation videos on social media platforms. They are largely contributing to what is known as “The Great Resignation”.
According to Forbes, late last year over 5,000 18 to 24 year olds participated in an Abode survey in which 56% stated that they plan on leaving their current jobs because of working conditions. What seems like the epitome of self care to today’s youth is baffling to older generations and CEOs. Gen Z and Millennials (along with a decent number of Gen X) are not only taking charge of their lives and demanding better conditions, but Gen Z alone has collectively acquired a 30% pay increase for the average job switch.
Finding meaning in the mundane
As we proceed through the years, it’s important to gain insight into our strengths, weaknesses, passions and ourselves as individuals so that we can make strides as a collective. It doesn’t hurt to take time out, even if it’s just for five minutes a day to just be in the moment and remind ourselves of the fact that we are here, alive and breathing, and that each of us are a crucial part of the grand scheme of things. It’s important to remember this grand scheme doesn’t just mean all work and no play. It consists of the so-called ”mundane” things we tend to do as human beings: laughing with our closest friends, listening to our favorite music, watching a great film for the first time, eating our favorite foods, etc. Whether it’s seeing the joy on our friends’ faces, hearing powerful lyrics in a song, watching a heartbreaking scene in a movie, or tasting a flavorful dish, these small everyday events can be used as a means to remember that these are the things that shape our experiences, help us build connections with others, and gives life meaning.
