W011: Notes
When Giving Up Begins To Trend, Spread Your Toes, I'm Just A Soul Who's Intentions Are Good, GenZ Lives Out of Context, Low Quality with High Production, Mandatory Reading
When giving up begins to trend
Being a teen or young adult has always been a challenging and emotional experience, but I can’t help but feel that today’s youth face a unique kind of pressure. Every day, they are inundated with news about global crises, rising living costs, and the ongoing climate emergency. Where we once believed that hard work could secure a home or a comfortable life, that dream now feels increasingly out of reach. Many young people are losing hope…
How do they cope with this overwhelm? Like many of us, they retreat from reality—doomscrolling and numbing their minds with YouTube and Netflix. But unlike the past, these once-private habits are now shared on social media and even turned into trends. On these platforms, this behaviour isn’t just normalised; it's encouraged, celebrated. But what for some starts as a coping mechanism can spiral out of control.
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What I began to wonder is, are we seeing the younger generations truly giving up or is there more then one thing going on. Part social revolution against all that “aesthetically pleasing perfection” of “self care” and partly the serious implications of our youth in destress.
As this article says, younger generations are fed up with terms like ‘Self Care’. These glamorised Instagram moments of “pretty” girls doing their nails and watching Netflix while they burn scented candles and apply soothing face maskS are un-relatable and unrealistic. Trend names like ‘Bed Rot’ and ‘Goblin Mode’ are a way to reclaim the reality of these moments where we just want to shut down, block everything out or get sucked up by the algorithm. Behaviour most of us can relate to.
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If we slide further down however, we are seeing a genuine representation of mental health issues on display. The World Health Organisation says globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds experiences a mental disorder. In Australia too we are seeing a strong tilt towards young people, especially females. Suicide is the leading cause of death for those aged 15-24, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. And nearly 40% of 16–24-year-old people experience a mental health disorder, reports the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In Asia, where work pressures are even higher, young people say the “ideals” simply cannot be achieved and many of them have given up on trying. China particularly is notorious for this. Here it’s 9-9-6 culture has been under critique even by it’s own government. Because of this pressure, ‘Bai Lan’, which translates to ‘laying flat and lowering once goals’ has been trending in China.
Across Asia we are also seeing the rise of “garbage house” influencers which to me has two concerns; not only the concern we feel for the influencers themselves, but also because our culture clearly desires to watch and consume this type of content. The brilliant Edvasian has a great video on this.
Contrary to what many older generations think, I don’t believe all this is because our youth is simply lazy and privileged. Sure, forms of privilege are required to be able to ‘bed rot’, however I just can’t believe it’s only that. Instead, I believe many young people are rightfully questioning themselves… why would we even try?
Social media has become a place where we can find like minded people, support and community. But what does it mean when some of these communities collectively decide to give up? How can we as a society help our youth find hope - outside the scroll?
Spread your toes
Is it just me or are we going to be seeing more wide toe 5 fingered shoes in the market. It isn’t that crazy of a development. The reappearance of the Tabby, colliding with the ongoing trend sports / rock-climber inspired aesthetics, alongside a more health-conscious consumer, makes this all feel like a pretty natural evolution.
As a mum, my feed started to fill up with ads for kids shoes like this a few years ago so seeing this trend move into the adult market feels natural too. Will I get ‘m? Idk. For sports maybe.
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I’m just a soul who’s intentions are good
People rush to translate someone’s intent and label the person accordingly. Fragmenting their complex persona into neatly assigned boxes. Yet, as easy as we make it seem on social media, ‘understanding each other’ is probably the hardest thing about being a human.
We have all experienced the feeling of being mis-understood. “I’m just a soul who’s intentions are good. Oh lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood” sang Nina Simone in 1964. Yet even though we all deeply understand this age old, painful and lonely feeling, we are still far more inclined to label and box-people-in than attempt to understand them.
I recently listened to this podcast with Rory Sutherland where he says, and I’m over simplifying here.. we’ve created mediums where it feels comfortable to type abuse or absurd over generalisations but it feels really uncomfortable to type something like ‘Jordan Peterson has said some good things’. I think this is because we no longer attempt to truly, genuinely understand each other — and perhaps even ourselves.
We much rather place everything and everyone into neatly assigned boxes then go through the uncomfortable mental labour of obtaining clarity. Do I like Peterson? No. Has he said some good things? Yes. — Do you judge me now?
I think Rory is right, some people would. Some would take that small piece of knowledge of me and place me in a box from which they would not let me escape. That knowledge would taint all my future statements and behaviours henceforth.
And it’s understandable! With all the input we get within a single day our brains are struggling to keep up. In order to cope we use mental short cuts (heuristics) that help us navigate our daily lives. Being certain about something is a lot easier then it is to question. But as Voltaire says, "Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one"
Gen Z lives out of the context
Honestly, watching GenZ creatives is a brilliant ride. I will need to do a deep dive on this one day but I will share two for your enjoyment.
I also love how brands are starting to tap into this too (see example below). Giving creators the freedom to do what they do best truly is a win for brands. It keeps the content authentic even if what your watching is ultimately just an #ad.
Low quality with high production
Not much to say about this but I’m really enjoying the low quality “shot on phone” content with high level production. It just works. It worked (once or twice) for the big CGI blow up stuff that got irritating very quickly but I’m happy we did not throw the baby out with the bath water and continued exploring the genre.
Mandatory Reading…
Friends of ours were over for dinner and pointed out a book on my shelf that I had briefly started but never finished. “Omg have you seen the movie!” She said. (I did not even know there was one…) That night I picked up the book. It was heavy and long - which was the reason I had initially favoured something less daunting. Interestingly, this time it-grabbed-me. Probably more then any other book has over the past few months. Usually I read several books at the same time but I could not put this one down.
It was confronting, deeply saddening and so powerfully educative. It’s history, personal experience (hers and others) and original theory. It’s genuinely an incredible piece of work and if it was up to me, it should be mandatory reading.
After reading the book, I was confused how this could be turned into a movie, a documentary maybe? But a movie? Boy was I wrong. I cried all the way through. A brilliant watch a brilliant read. Be ready.